Nevada’s wealthiest take private school money
By Trevon Milliard, Reno Gazette-Journal
The state’s offer to families was $5,000 per child.
The promise: Nevada’s poor families would be afforded a new choice – private school.
But only 7 percent of students applying for the money live in areas reporting low household income, while nearly a third of takers reside in the state’s richest ZIP codes where median household incomes exceed $75,000 at the least.
A vast majority of applicants – 80 percent – live in neighborhoods where median household incomes outpace the state median of $51,000, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal’s analysis of information released about the 3,000 students seeking public money for private school.
A little more than half of Nevada’s public school students are low income, according to the Nevada Department of Education, but only 20 percent of program applicants identify as low income, according to the State Treasurer’s Office overseeing the program.