Lombardo's Office says Speaker Yeager "misremembers" Opportunity Scholarship Talks

UPDATE:

Speaker Yeager's office finally replied to our multiple requests. Here is their response regarding the issue:

"While further expansion of the opportunity scholarship program was debated, and ultimately rejected, during the legislative session, at no time was I alerted that without additional funding from the Legislature (beyond the tax credits of $6,655,000 per year authorized under NRS 363B.119(4)), existing students in the program would lose the ability to stay in their current schools. Had I known that, I would have sought a solution to limit future growth of the program while ensuring that no student's current educational path was disrupted."

"Also it is important to clarify for you Speaker did not say we did not discuss opportunity scholarships, we clearly did. We discussed expanding the current programs past their current means, which the legislature ultimately rejected. At no time, did any advocate or member of the Govs office say on the record or to a reporter kids would lose their scholarship without the additional funding."

-----------

With the start of the school year just days away, legislative democrats are calling for greater accountability and continued investment in schools for Nevada's historic education budget.

Last week Governor Joe Lombardo pledged to ask for more than $3-million in unallocated federal COVID funds to fill the Opportunity Scholarship Program budget.

After the Nevada Legislature decided to not renew Opportunity Scholarships, the cap was essentially shrunk in half from $11.4 Million to $6.7 Million, putting an estimated 600 private and charter school students at risk of losing their scholarships.

The issue of school choice has been a flash point for many years between both parties, but today during a presser Democratic Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager said it was never discussed during the 2023 Nevada Legislature.

"Let me address the so called Opportunity Scholarship Program. It was never our intent that anybody in the program would lose their place due to lack of funding, unfortunately conversations around that particular dynamic never happened at the legislative session because it was not an issue that anybody raised during the legislative session," said (D-Las Vegas) Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager.

However, 2 News covered the debate over opportunity scholarships during the 2023 Nevada Legislative Session.

The headline from my article from June 5th, just a day before "sine die," is entitled "Appropriations Budget Held Up Over Opportunity Scholarships"

Here is an except from the tracking in the June 5th report:

'We've confirmed that the Governor's Office wants to see expanded opportunity scholarships, and that Lombardo has sent a strong signal that he's not going to back down until getting that concession."

In the meantime, the legislature will consider Governor Lombardo's proposal on using federal COVID dollars to refill the Opportunity Scholarship Program next week.

"There was additional funding being proposed by the Interim Finance Committee. We are working through that proposal now, and gathering the information to help us as legislators make an informed decision with respect to that request which is on next week's agenda," said Yeager during Wednesday's presser/

School Choice Lobbyist Valeria Gurr gave testimony during the session.

In the last week, Gurr has been in a debate with Speaker Yeager over opportunity scholarships on the social media platform "X" formerly known as Twitter.

"So essentially the only answer we're giving them is I'm so sorry, you're poor, that's the only school we have for you," said Gurr.

We received a statement from Governor Lombardo's Office that reads in part: "Democrats have clearly decided to intentionally misremember the end of the legislative session, including a meeting with the Governor's Chief of Staff in which he outlined a compromise that included funding opportunity scholarships," unquote.

I have reached out to the executive director for the Nevada Assembly Democratic Caucus for further elaboration from Speaker Yeager on his statement that opportunity scholarships were never discussed during the legislature.

We have not heard back yet as of the time of publication.