Education
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Marilyn Dondero Loop spent her career as an educator and has more than forty years of experience in our local schools. Thirty of those years were spent in our classrooms, teaching Nevada’s children. Her last fourteen years were spent training our teachers on highly effective classroom strategies and delivering needed education development tools. Marilyn knows what it takes to make sure our local schools and our students are getting what they need to be successful.
Since she was elected to the Senate in 2018, Marilyn has been a leader on public education. She helped secure the largest education budgets in state history in both sessions she served, including most recently a $500 million increase to per pupil spending.
From her time spent in the classroom, Marilyn knows that teachers are key to our students’ success. That’s why she fought to secure a much-deserved pay raise for Nevada teachers. Marilyn also sponsored and passed legislation doubling the reimbursement amounts teachers are able to collect when spending money out of pocket for classroom supplies.
Marilyn also fought to secure more $300 million in funding to reduce class sizes. She understands that we must prevent overcrowding in our classrooms and make sure our students are getting the individualized attention they deserve.
As a grandmother with five school-age grandkids, Marilyn has seen how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our students. That’s why she fought for education federal relief dollars to be spent on summer school and learning loss programs at no cost to parents and students. She also worked to enable Nevada schools to use American Rescue Funds to improve indoor air quality to make sure our students are safer in the classroom.
Marilyn also saw the devastating impact the pandemic had on our students’ mental health. Working with a group of high school students, Marilyn fought to secure three excused absence mental health days per school year and added a suicide prevention hotline number to student IDs. She has also consistently fought to fund more school counselor, psychologist and social worker positions throughout her time in the Senate.
In addition to her time as a Senator, Marilyn previously served three terms in the Nevada State Assembly. During her time in the Assembly, Marilyn was instrumental in the creation of the ZOOM schools, which provided Nevada’s students with unprecedented support in acquiring the reading skills needed to be successful.
As a career educator, we can always rely on Marilyn to do what is best for our students, our parents and our local schools.