Other Legal Efforts

Reid and Rogers cases

In 2022, ENN supported efforts that successfully halted two costly and harmful initiative petitions pushed by the Education Freedom for Nevada PAC. Bradley Schrager and Daniel Bravo of Bravo Schrager represented plaintiffs Beverly Rogers and Rory Reid in fighting initiatives that could have costed Nevada taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to fund private school vouchers.

Beverly Rogers and Rory Reid are the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Rogers Foundation, respectively. They also serve on the board of Educate Nevada Now.

One initiative aimed to change the Nevada Constitution to require taxpayers foot the bill for universal private school vouchers. The second initiative petition aimed to codify in state law a similar scheme. In each case, both the lower court and the Nevada Supreme Court held the initiatives legally insufficient.

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The Decisions: 

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Reid v. Cegavske

In Reid , District Court Judge Charles McGee halted an initiative petition that aimed to change the Nevada Constitution to force taxpayers to fund universal private schools vouchers, even subsidizing the wealthy and those already in private/home schools. When only accounting for those already in private school, the program would immediately blow a $300 million hole in the state budget. Funding the costly measure would have required raising taxes on Nevadans, reducing funding for public education and other state services, or both.

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The court found the initiative was invalid for three reasons: (1) it was an unfunded mandate, (2) the description of effect was legally misleading and contains a material omission, and (3) the initiative violated the Nevada Legislature's inherent deliberative functions by commanding the Legislature to enact certain laws.

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On June 28, 2022, the Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's decision on appeal, permanently halting the constitutional initiative petition.

Rogers v. Cegavske

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In Rogers,  Judge McGee halted the statutory initiative for similar reasons identified in Reid. The court described the statutory initiative as a "shell game" that failed to describe the "enormous fiscal impact of the initiative on the budget of most, if not all, of the school districts in the State of Nevada." The court held that the initiative could not proceed because it contained an unfunded mandate, stating the initiative contained the same “sleight of hand” as the constitutional initiative because it failed to identify a funding source or tax to support the scheme.

The court noted that "[t]he proposed initiative will have a pronounced effect on the education system in the State of Nevada and it would leave a future Legislature with a harness around its neck and shoulders that would prevent it from exercising its discretion to fulfill its duties to see to the education of children in our state."

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On  September 12, 2022, the Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's decision, stopping the petition from moving forward.

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