breaking up the district: advantages VS disadvantages...

Cesar Lopez(Con), Arun Keshavan(Pro), Isabella Solis(Intro/End)

As the Clark County School District grows larger and larger with each passing year, some have felt that the district is becoming too large and inefficient. So, what would logic dictate to be the most obvious conclusion? Break up. But, like any ordinary couple going through the breakup process, not everyone in the district is very pleased with this solution. So… what’s the right decision that would benefit both sides? We have to account for the fact that Nevada is ranked second to last in education, so the separatists argue that if we separate the district we can focus more on students' personal education and our state's ranking. On the other hand, the centralists of the district believe that separating the district either wouldn’t do anything or would only make the situation in the county worse. So, as with any situation, the only way to properly consider a solution is to argue and get perspectives from both parties.



Arun:

CCSD would benefit from breaking up into smaller districts, as it allows for supporters of smaller districts to be more responsive to the needs of children and families. Allowing for more in-depth care of students, rather than just focusing on the smaller minority of smarter kids in the system. Since 1956, Nevada only has 17 school districts, and each one containing "300,000 students"(Nevada Initiative). It's hard to take care of the needs of so many. Hence the idea of breaking it up into smaller districts. Allowing an average amount of students to be taken care of at a certain point and time.

Cesar:

Sure, breaking up CCSD may help the richer districts be more responsive to its needs, but without the revenue of the different districts coming together, the poorer districts will find themselves down under with lower budgets, less experienced teachers, and lower quality schools. Sure, the top schools in the country only have around a couple thousand students, but the ones worse for wear are also in that very same boat. CCSD has huge problems with its inability to account for all of the students in the district, but dissolving it is hardly an answer for all of us. For example, using “Niche” as a map to grade school districts, we do in fact see A+ ratings from districts that are smaller in the thousands, but we also see “D”s and “C”s from similar size districts in the same areas. My opponent’s solution only helps those areas with the money to focus on a “small number of students”.


Do not be fooled. CCSD has a "B" rating and we're complaining about the quality of our schools.

Image Credit: Niche, Map of B rated School Districts, https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-school-districts/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1647894603735386&usg=AOvVaw3hd8sGhUKvBR84dG_kBJyd


Arun:

Breaking up the district allows smaller districts to have their own rules and ideas that may benefit students in the area. As bigger districts have to look at the overall of a larger place. Smaller districts can specialize on certain things that students know they are ready for and form more appropriately-sized school districts, which would satisfy and balance the student-teacher ratio we see out of control according to a petition from the community schools initiative by Henderson City Councilman Dan Stewart. 30-40+ students per teacher sounds like a lot.



Cesar:

Breaking the district up could allow for greater representation, that is true. However, this ability to address local problems is not unique to small districts. Clark County School District is only the 3rd largest school district in the country. The largest district in fact, is New York City. New York City has triple the amount of students that CCSD has. Under the thinking of my opponent, this would mean New York City school kids are some of the worst educated in the country, if not THE worst educated in the country. However, if we look at this spreadsheet from the 2019 fiscal year, we see a much different picture. New York City has $30,000,000,000 reserved for the education system, 10 times more than CCSD despite only having 3 times as many students. The school district as a whole is of better quality with additional funding, as much of the district consistently has better grades than CCSD, and the district’s test scores are rising and graduation rates remain on par with the nation despite its size. According to this, it would seem that funding and reform is a greater problem for CCSD, rather than the size.



Arun:

Money: Money is crucial in the education system, just last year (due to covid) CCSD will have gained “$777 million in care package funds in the next 3 years”(Shock and Awe’). But CCSD constantly looks at the bigger image and doesn’t deal with singular school needs. Now imagine if smaller districts split that 777 million evenly and were able to take care of the singular needs of schools within the smaller districts. It would benefit student education and school quality greatly if all school districts got similar funds.

Plenty of "A"s, plenty of "B"'s, all in the same place. The effects of splitting up are not as desirable as described.

Image Credit: Niche, Map of A-rated School Districts, https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-school-districts/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1647894603735386&usg=AOvVaw3hd8sGhUKvBR84dG_kBJyd


Cesar:

My previous point stands. My opponent assumes that the district will be divided up evenly and fairly, and funds will be distributed to the people evenly and neatly, but this is not the case. Areas have the right to decide for themselves how they want to split up, and due to this, it is dangerous to assume that the richer districts would not be in it for themselves. Today, we have national politicians changing districts so that they can squeeze every electoral vote out of a state to win elections. We have richer areas shooting down affordable housing so the area remains “clean” and “safe”. This is only scaled down to the district level. The communities cannot be trusted to be fair and equal to one another. The only way to ensure equity is to have one district with one goal.


Money. Equity. Equality. These seem to be the main issues involving the separate parties arguing as to whether or not the district should break up. One side has argued and pointed out that the areas of less wealth can benefit from splitting up by getting more funds. Whilst the opposing side argues that the more wealthy areas will benefit instead of the areas actually in need. Will the separate districts be affected or manage to live equally in harmony? There is no guarantee that either of them is right, but if there is one fact in this argument, then it is that the Clark County School district needs some sort of restructuring.