In the Trenches of the Battle for School Choice

It’s hard to find many people who believe New Jersey is a freer state than Nevada. At least not until they speak with Elissa Wahl.

Wahl began homeschooling her children in New Jersey, which has virtually no laws regulating that educational option. When she and her family moved to Nevada they found the laws very restrictive and efforts afoot to make them even more so.

That’s when Wahl decided to become an activist. Thanks to her efforts, school choice is improving in the Silver State, although there’s still a long way to go.

Wahl, who founded RISE Resource Center in 2009, was recently appointed by Governor Brian Sandoval to Nevada’s newly-established Charter School Authority. The Charter School Authority replaces the State Board of Education subcommittee, which had sponsored charter schools, “reluctantly,” according to Wahl. “For a while there was a moratorium on charter schools.”

The RISE Resource Center provides resources to support educational choice. The Center educates parents about the various educational alternatives, holds classes for homeschools and home-based charter schools and provides other resources for parents and children to pursue the educational option that best suits each individual’s needs.

When parents inform the Clark County School District (CCSD) they want to explore alternatives to the public schools, the CCSD refers them to Wahl for education on the options available to them. “I’ve found out that parents don’t really know what their options are and what the different choices are called,” she says.

Before starting RISE, Wahl helped found the Nevada Homeschool Network in response to the very restrictive laws governing homeschooling that existed at the time. The Homeschool Network “is a state-wide organization that advocates for homeschooling in the least-restrictive manner possible,” describes Wahl. “We’ve written a lot of laws and lobbied for laws and helped change laws so that homeschooling could be done as each parent thinks best for each individual child.”

In 2007, the Nevada passed laws relaxing restrictions on homeschooling and allowing parents much more flexibility to tailor the homeschooling experience to fit the needs of each individual child. The Nevada Homeschool Network’s, and Wahl’s, efforts were instrumental in achieving that success.

Wahl hopes to have similar success at the Charter School Authority but she knows it’s not going to be easy. “It took us years and years and years, diligently, for the homeschooling law,” she says, adding, “it’s not going to change overnight.”

When asked how Nevada compares to other states with respect to school choice, Wahl replies, “Not very well.” She explains, “It’s very hard to start a private school here. It’s very hard to start a charter school here.”

Wahl relates the story of a group attempting to start a charter school in a rural area in Nevada that had to submit a 682-page proposal. “In a land where we’re failing at education, can’t we just let them start?” she asks. “There has to be some way to make it easier than having to submit a 682-page proposal.”

Even in the urban areas in Clark County there is a lot of work to do to expand school choice. Wahl describes a mother she spoke with recently who was looking for a charter school near her home or her work but found there were none. “She’s looking for an alternative but can’t find one that fits her situation,” Wahl says.

Often when there are options, people often don’t take advantage of them. “People know about the public schools,” Wahl says. “Until there’s a problem they don’t know to look elsewhere.”

There are several high-quality private schools in the Las Vegas Valley that are relatively inexpensive ($5,000 - $7,500 per year, compared to the approximately $9,000 per pupil the CCSD spends) but are still operating at far less than capacity. The struggling economy, with 12% unemployment, has certainly contributed to this.

But Wahl also cites a lack of awareness on the part of the public. Many parents simply are unaware there are private schools “that don’t cost $25,000.”

Still, Wahl is optimistic. She cites the potential of online learning to be “the wave of the future” and notes that new CCSD Superintendent Dwight Jones “is really intent on getting a lot of classes online.” And the Charter School Authority represents “a new awakening. So, hopefully, twenty years down the road we’ll have a lot of great charter schools.” Along with other options, so that all parents can select the educational option that best fits the needs of each individual family and child.

Nevada may be behind many other states when it comes to school choice but, with the hard work of people like Elissa Wahl, we will be catching up.