Issue Position: Higher Education

Issue Position

I am a graduate of both the University of Nevada, Reno and the William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV. I was able to attend school here in Nevada in large part because I earned a Millennium Scholarship while attending high school in Clark County. Were it not for the Millennium Scholarship, I would not have had the opportunity to get a higher education. It is important for the current and next generation of Nevada children that we protect the Millennium Scholarship so students in our state have the opportunity and access to pursue higher education.

Ensuring access to quality higher education is imperative to the success of our students and our state. I will support efforts to tackle the issue of student debt by providing Nevadans with more options to refinance loans, and will focus on efforts to keep our universities, colleges, and community colleges affordable.

Additionally, I will work to address the under-utilized community college system to ensure we are capitalizing on the opportunities afforded to students by the community college system. Our community colleges should become one of the cornerstones of our higher education system because those schools provide low-cost, high-quality instruction and often provide a cheaper, faster route for students who do not wish to pursue a traditional four-year degree.

Finally, we need to reform the Nevada System of Higher Education in order to decentralize some decision-making, improve information-sharing and the ability of the elected Board of Regents to oversee the system, give institutional presidents a bigger voice in advocating for their schools, and ensure that funding is balanced fairly to serve the interests of all regions of the state.

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