Transparency 
Nevada currently budgets approximately 48% of its budget to the school system.

The Clark County School District budget is currently $9 Billion per year. 

This amounts to about $13,000.00 per year per child. 

Obviously, the problem is not money but how that money is spent. We need to know where those dollars are going. 

The chart on the right is a flow chart (click to enlarge) which shows how much administration has grown since 1989. Nevada schools have been receiving more money each year, however, this money is not flowing down to the classrooms. The Administration has continually been getting more and more top heavy. 

I want to know where this money is being spent and I believe the people of Nevada want to know also.

Transparency in the school district budget is the first critical step in fixing the broken system.

Competition 
Clark County is the 5th largest school district in the country. It is too large and too disorganized to run with real transparency and accountability. 

CCSD needs to be broken in to smaller, more manageable districts. This will create competition between districts, which will attract better teachers and administrators while weeding out poor employees.

Districts will be forced to compete for state money. Districts with better scholastic performance and well-managed budgets will receive more funding. 

Parents should have options for their children’s education. This starts by having more than one public school district. 

Accountability 
Educational systems in Nevada need greater accountability at all levels. 

School administrators should be accountable for the quality of education in a school. Teachers should be accountable for the quality of education in the classroom.

Transparency in the budgets will account for every dollar spent. Competition between districts will force administrators to be held accountable for wasted money. 

2. Reducing Taxes and Controlling Spending.
Raising taxes is not the solution to the budget challenges we face.

There are legitimate resources that your tax dollars pay for, such as police and fire departments. 
What is the answer? Transparency and accountability.

For the past 6 years, our current elected officials have told us that there is nowhere to cut the budget and that taxes must be increased. 

Really?  So there is NO wasted money in our state government?  They must be joking!

Leonard Foster says it’s time for Nevada citizens to go through the budget with a fine-toothed comb.

The "baseline budgeting" process that the state currently uses is completely inadequate for the task that will face lawmakers in the 2011 session. To meet current fiscal challenges while maintaining the quality of essential services, lawmakers will need a new budgeting tool — one allowing them to allocate spending in the manner most efficient for meeting citizen needs. 

In response to faltering revenues in his state in 2002, then-Washington governor Gary Locke developed an approach he called Priorities of Government. Alternatively known today as "Budgeting for Outcomes" (BFO), Outcome-Based Budgeting or Priority-Based Budgeting, the approach met such success that it has since been adopted in Iowa, Michigan, South Carolina and Louisiana, as well as in local governments across the country.

The premise behind the BFO process is that lawmakers should prioritize the results that they want government to achieve for citizens. Then, after determining the most effective way of purchasing those results, available funds are allocated to do so. In Washington, as in other states where BFO has been implemented, this has implied a rethinking of the structure of government.

Start from Scratch!  We won’t hand out money to agencies based on last year’s budget.

Every agency will present supporting evidence for every dollar allocated.

If they can’t justify every dollar they ask for, then they don’t get it!

3. Economic Growth.
Low taxes and a business-friendly environment have earned Nevada the reputation as a great place for business. However, recent tax and business fee increases have changed this. Burdening businesses with taxes and fees leads to higher prices, employee layoffs and slower growth.

Leonard Foster will stop job-killing corporate regulations and tax increases. 

We need:

• Tax cuts to help spur development and job creation 
• Improvement in our education system so that we can diversify our economy with a well-educated population of workers.