Earlier this month, WalletHub released its ranking of Best and Worst States for Health Care. Nevada ranked #42 out of 51 states and the District of Columbia, and behind all Intermountain West states (see Table 1). States were assessed along three measures: cost, access, and outcomes. Nevada ranked #47 in cost, #50 in access, and… Read more

Last month, Prosperity Now (formerly Corporation for Enterprise Development or CFED) released its annual Prosperity Now scorecard, as discussed in the companion report, On Track or Left Behind. Nevada’s cumulative rank was #46, based on scores in 5 policy areas: (1) Financial Assets and Income (rank #43), (2) Businesses and Jobs (rank #45), (3) Homeownership and Housing (rank… Read more

Congressional representatives in our nation’s capital continue to battle it out over health care and tax code reform, leaving some observers to call it the least productive session in recent memory following the election of a new government. In stark contrast, recent criminal justice reforms in half a dozen states – including Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada,… Read more

Nevada’s frequently bleak educational outcomes are often compounded when a student comes from an at-risk population. These populations can include students with disabilities, students from low-income families, students in the foster care system, and students who do not perform at grade level. Recognizing this problem, the Nevada Legislature has crafted a series of bills aimed… Read more

As the end of the 79th Session of the Nevada Legislature draws near, legislators from both sides of the aisle and in both houses continue work on passing several pieces of legislation that aim to help increase student achievement in Nevada. While the Silver State has shown some progress in elevating student outcomes, especially since… Read more

The federal government is planning to look into state laws that allow for marijuana use for non-medial purposes, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in a press conference last week. Meanwhile, Nevada is moving ahead with its rollout of its legalized marijuana program, with sales set to begin on July 1, 2017. Marijuana was… Read more

Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) Chancellor John V. White recently presented a report to the Board of Regents and the public on the state of higher education in Nevada. The report, which compared Nevada to states with similar population sizes (i.e., Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, and Utah), highlighted the struggles NSHE schools have faced in… Read more

Recent reporting by the Guinn Center has highlighted studies on the effects of the criminal justice system on families and women in Nevada. This blog explores a new report from the Juvenile Law Center, “Debtor’s Prison for Kids? The High Cost of Fines and Fees in the Juvenile Justice System,” an analysis of the juvenile… Read more

As the wildfires that engulfed thousands of acres across the Southwest this summer are dying down, a different type of fire is consuming the members of Legislative Commission’s Subcommittee to Study Water and the Nevada State Engineer for the Division of Water Resources, Jason King. On August 26, hundreds of Nye County residents gathered at… Read more

The number of women behind bars in the United States has grown to nearly 110,000—fourteen times the size of the population of women in jails and prisons forty years ago, says a new study from the Vera Institute of Justice, an organization that examines the country’s criminal justice system. The growth rate for women behind… Read more