By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

LAS VEGAS – Nevada’s Clark County School District has rejoined President Obama’s “Race to the Top” education reform initiative, after the local teachers union had a last-minute change of heart and agreed to support the district’s application.

Until recently, the Clark County Education Association had used its veto power over the district’s $40 million grant request “to complain the district still doesn’t pay teachers enough and wants to reform teacher evaluation procedures to take student performance into account,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

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By giving its blessing to the grant, the Las Vegas-area school district stands a much better chance of winning extra federal K-12 assistance, which would be used to help struggling students.

The CCEA’s change of heart doesn’t mean the union is suddenly okay with incorporating student learning into teacher evaluations. It’s just that the union has bigger, life-and-death concerns at the moment.

The union has been hemorrhaging members for the past several years. Currently, only 62 percent of Clark County educators belong to the union. If support drops below 50 percent, the CCEA would lose the right to negotiate on behalf of educators in the nation’s fifth-largest school district.

Union leaders must have done the math and realized that the district’s Race to the Tope grant could add an additional 22 teachers and 24 support staff members to the district’s payroll. The union’s newfound spirit of cooperation is likely linked to the appealing prospect of adding dozens of new dues paying members to its rolls.

It would be naïve to think otherwise.

Regardless of the union’s motivation, at least the school district can now proceed with its application that is designed to benefit at-risk students.