Armed with threat of 2026 ballot question, Clark County teachers union plots legislative agenda

Clark County Education Association Executive Director John Vellardita confirmed to Nevada Current the union is not asking state lawmakers for a hearing on their proposal to give Nevada teachers the right to strike. Instead, they will be using their ballot measure as leverage during this year’s legislative session.

It’s a strategy pulled directly from a playbook the union created four years ago.

In 2021, CCEA had two approved ballot questions in their back pocket — one raising gaming tax, another raising sales tax. They withdrew both after the passage of a new mining tax that directly funds the state’s K-12 public education system.

This year’s ballot measure, dubbed A Teacher In Every Classroom, is approved to appear before voters in the 2026 General Election if the Legislature and governor do not pass the proposal themselves during the first 40 days of this year’s session, and if the union doesn’t withdraw it themselves.

Vellardita declined to say what exactly the union, which represents approximately 18,000 teachers and licensed personnel within the Clark County School District, would consider a fair trade for pulling the strike ballot initiative.

“We’re going to get something,” said Vellardita. “That’s all I’ll say at this point. If we don’t get anything, we’re prepared for ‘26. We have the resources. We believe we have community support.”

Nevada law currently bars all public employees from striking and establishes binding arbitration as the remedy for contract negotiations that have reached an impasse. A Teacher In Every Classroom would create a carve out that allows teachers and non-teacher licensed staff (like school nurses and psychologists). It would not apply to other public employees.

Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo last month told KTNV he opposes giving Nevada teachers the ability to strike. Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, a Las Vegas Democrat, supports the petition, according to her caucus staff.

Vellardita previously said the union would be open to “some kind of alternative remedy” established by the Legislature to bring quicker resolutions to contract negotiation disputes. He reiterated that position this week.

“That’s a very important issue,” he said. “The ability for educators to level the playing field in collective bargaining. There is not a school district (or) teachers’ union in this state that has gone through more than CCEA in the last decade plus. Four different binding arbitrations, lots of money, lots of time dragged out.  We’re operating on a law that’s 60 years old that has to change.”

Nevada’s anti-strike law dates back to 1969 and the establishment of the first statewide law governing the settlement of disputes between public labor and management.

State Sen. Rochelle Nguyen, a Las Vegas Democrat who CCEA supported in a competitive primary challenge backed by the Culinary Union, is sponsoring Senate Bill 161, which would, among other things, allow a union to petition the court to authorize a strike.

The court would have to determine if a proposed strike would “be equally or less detrimental to the pupils within the school district” than the continuance of the policies or conditions the union is attempting to alleviate by means of a strike. Those conditions, the bill language says, could relate “to the physical, emotional or mental health and safety of teachers in the school district, the numbers of teachers teaching in a school or the school district, the size of classes in the school district or the intentional failure of a school district to comply with any provision of state law or regulations, that is detrimental to the wellbeing of pupils within the school district.”

Nguyen could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Other legislative priorities

Vellardita may be hoping to avoid having the teachers strike measure on the ballot next year, but one thing he would welcome is an advisory question to gauge public support for raising taxes to support the state’s public education system.

Nevada Revised Statute doesn’t currently allow for statewide advisory questions, though they are an option at the city or county level.

The Commission on School Funding in 2022 released a report laying out what lawmakers could do to bring Nevada’s per-pupil spending up to the national average. It identified possible new funding sources, including expanding sales tax to include digital products instead of just tangible ones, and reforming property taxes.

Those tax reform proposals have not come to fruition, though significant financial investments were made last session through other means. The Commission, which had been scheduled to sunset, was extended for an additional two years and released another report on optimal school funding.

“It’s the same report,” says Vellardita in an admonishment of the lack of action. “So how do you move the needle? If you don’t have the leadership to act on this because you don’t think the voters are there on investing in education to levels that very well may make a significant difference in a kid’s education, then let the voters decide. If you don’t want to decide, let voters decide.”

The union head concedes he doesn’t know how an advisory question would shake out, but he believes it’s a conversation worth happening with the public. He added that the eventual ask for more financial investment is part of why another pillar of CCEA’s priorities center on increasing accountability among school districts, education leaders, and teachers.

Many of those priorities align with an omnibus education bill expected to be introduced by Cannizzaro. Complete bill language has not yet been made public but the majority leader has said it would mandate minimum professional qualifications for school district superintendents and chief financial officers, establish an oversight board that could take remedial action on districts that fail to meet certain obligations, and establish administrator-to-teacher staffing ratios.

Editor’s Note: This article has been corrected to reflect who would be covered by strike ballot measure. It applies only to teachers and other licensed staff.