Nevada voters narrowly defeated Question 1 in November of 2020. That ballot question would have given the Nevada Legislature the power to re-configure the Nevada System of Higher Education.
A similar measure, introduced yesterday in Nevada’s Senate, aims to do much of the same. Senate Joint Resolution 7, introduced by Assembly member Tom Roberts (R) and Senator Marilyn Dondero Loop (D), would remove the system’s Board of Regents from the Nevada Constitution and place it under the purview of the Legislature.
The resolution specifically calls out what its authors say is NSHE’s “defensive shield and cloak against the people’s legislative check of accountability.” It also notes “cases before the Nevada Supreme Court [where] the Board of Regents has asserted that its ‘unique constitutional status’ gives it ‘virtual autonomy and thus immunity’ from particular laws and policies enacted by the Legislature.”
The resolution is indirectly referring to myriad issues going back years of NSHE, according to lawmakers, flouting its independence in the face of legislative accountability.
The legislature maintains budget authority over NSHE, and this resolution, if passed, would “allow the Legislature to exercise the full extent of its legislative power to review, reform and improve the programs and operations of the State University and, in doing so, the Legislature will also have more options and greater flexibility to review, reform and improve all other institutions, programs and operations of the Nevada System of Higher Education.”
The board of regents, as proposed, would still be elected in its current form, but the board would “be subject to the people’s legislative check of accountability through legislative oversight [and] ensure that the Board of Regents’ control and management of the affairs of the State University are governed by all laws enacted by the Legislature.”
Voters will have to approve—similar to the last general election and Q1—the measure at the ballot box for it to take effect, but not before the legislature passes the resolution this session and during the 2023 session.
This story is developing and may be updated.
