SUBMITTED CAMPAIGN LETTER
As a long time supporter of Nevada schools and students, you are a vital part of the effort to improve the failing 
education system in our great state. I am writing to tell you how much your dedication means to me, and to ask for your support in stepping onto a bold, new path.
It is time to break the cycle of hearings, studies, reports, and committees to report on the studies. It is time to implement real change. It is time for new ideas and fresh resolve.
We must rethink the historic pattern of imposing special earmarks from Carson City and legislatively mandated expenditures on our school districts.
The manner in which education is delivered to children should not be dictated by unions. Parents, teachers, communities, and teams of dedicated administrators and staff are the key to student success. These education leaders should not have to answer to the coercive power of teacher unions that are not working in the best interests of our children.
We need to recognize that it is possible to both save money and enhance student performance.
My plan to overhaul the education system begins with these steps:
- Adopt a statewide voucher system, give parents choice and control, and give school districts more power over the way their funding is allocated.
- Allow more flexibility in school structure and planning by eliminating local government and school district collective bargaining. This will return control of the education system to parents, students, and school boards in the local communities.
- Eliminate the elected state Board of Education and replace it with a five member advisory board. The State Superintendent of Education would be hired by, serve at the pleasure of, and report to the Governor.
- Streamline K-12 school funding and create empowerment school districts, letting school districts decide where to best put those resources based on their student populations.
Teachers and parents all across Nevada have contacted me and applauded our efforts to find new solutions to old problems. We can work together with innovation and determination to make Nevada schools a model for the future!
My friend, please join me in the fight to give Nevada’s children the educational opportunities they deserve by breaking away from old, worn out strategies that have not delivered satisfactory student achievement. I need your help to move this fight forward!
Sincerely,
Jim Gibbons
Nevada Governor
