Rory Reid has the best plan for the future of Nevada education

It's no secret that Nevada's educational system needs help. We live in a state where less than 50 percent of students graduate from high schools and budgets continue to be slashed at an alarming rate.

As an educator in the Washoe County School District for more than 25 years and superintendent for five, I've watched the struggles of our schools to succeed. It was at times heartbreaking; at other times frustrating; and, always, extremely challenging.

The time for change is now. And it cannot begin with further across-the-board cuts. In the past three years alone more than $300 million has been stripped from school budgets in Nevada. Each year roughly 20,000 students are dropping out of our schools, severely limiting their futures and costing the state untold millions of dollars in lost revenue.

It's a staggering cycle and one that can only be stopped with a fundamental restructuring in the way we approach education in this state.

The Washoe County School District has started with these changes, and one candidate for governor, Rory Reid, has proposed a similar approach for education across Nevada — from Reno to Las Vegas to the rural districts.

We must put the onus for education on individual schools. No longer should staffing and budgetary decisions be made at the state or district levels. Principals and teaching professionals — the men and women living in working in the communities they serve — must be given the freedom to develop school schedules and curriculums, manage school budgets and make staffing decisions to best serve the students in their schools.

The principal must be the leader of a school and not handcuffed by administration and state agencies not working day-to-day with students.

This will come with great responsibility. Principals — and the dedicated teachers — will be responsible for educating our children. And they will not have excuses. Teachers should have the freedom to do what they do best: teach.

The vast majority of teachers I worked with in 25 years have been incredible and dedicated professionals who want nothing more than to help young people achieve their dreams. Most teachers went into teaching because they want to make a difference in young people's lives. They need the freedom to do that.

Certainly there are some bad teachers and principals must have the ability to remove these teachers not able or willing to live up to expectations. Should be treated like professionals.

These are simple changes and changes that should not cost money. It gets government out of the way of our children's education. I was happy to discuss this issue with Mr. Reid recently and am eager for him to have these conversations with people in Nevada.

His proposed changes would improve and restructure education in our state to better meet the needs of all our students — which unfortunately we currently aren't doing.