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EDITORIAL: Audit is common ground for lawmakers, new governor

Democrats retained a stronghold on the Legislature following the midterm elections, but they sit one vote shy in the Senate of enjoying a supermajority in both chambers. Will the leadership work with a new Republican governor or force him to wear out his veto pen?

There is common ground.

In September, high-ranking Democrats in Carson City called for a state financial audit of the Clark County School District. This was a significant reversal. Over the years, legislative Democrats have stood against most education reforms and have killed GOP efforts to impose increased budget scrutiny. Yet Clark County’s academic challenges remain significant. It’s no coincidence that the audit proposal came shortly after six Southern Nevada chambers of commerce called for the district — the nation’s fifth-largest — to be broken into smaller pieces.

“The bottom line is, we just want to make sure there’s transparency and accountability,” said Steve Yeager, a Las Vegas Democrat who serves as acting speaker of the Assembly, “and that we can answer questions that our constituents have about what has been done with both the state, federal and any other monies coming into CCSD.”

Mr. Yeager is dead on. District per-pupil funding has increased 25 percent since 2018, and the federal government has showered Clark County with nearly $1 billion in pandemic-related cash. In addition, lawmakers recently implemented a new funding formula for the state public schools. It’s more important than ever that taxpayers receive an accounting for how the state’s largest school district uses the money beyond internal assurances.

In response to the audit bill draft, Clark County school officials pointed to their website that allows the public to track school finances and issued a statement saying they welcomed the opportunity to highlight their “student-focused” spending. “Despite Nevada’s lowest in the nation education funding status,” the statement read, “CCSD educators, support staff and administrators produce better student academic outcomes with the money we receive.”

Sounds as if they were jumping for joy. Regardless, all of that might be reassuring if the district didn’t have a long history of fighting public records requests.

Gov.-elect Joe Lombardo has previously expressed support for an inspection of the district’s books. This is an excellent opportunity for him to start his tenure by reaching out to legislative leaders to ensure bipartisan action on an issue of great public importance. He should urge lawmakers to ensure that any such audit goes well beyond the routine internal examinations conducted by the district itself and provides an independent and detailed accounting for the use of both state and federal funds. A deep dive into where the Clark County School District directs is resources is long overdue.

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