With a robust Las Vegas economy and a positive outlook predicted for 2020, one would think longtime commercial real estate executive Christina Roush would be sleeping well at night.
For the most part, she said, that’s true, but there is one local issue that sometimes has her staring at the ceiling.
“We need to work hard on overcoming low educational attainment,” Roush said. “We need to figure out how we can elevate our students and our educational experience in the public school system as well as our higher education. Our workforce depends on it and the companies that want to move here depend on it.”
Roush, a commercial real estate veteran of more than 30 years and managing principal for Cushman & Wakefield, wasn’t the only real estate expert to touch on public education in Southern Nevada during a 2020 community forecast event last week at Paris Las Vegas.
“I continue to think that K-12 education is the biggest stain on our community,” said Don Snyder, a longtime leader in the Southern Nevada business community, public education advocate and former UNLV president. “We’ve had incredible growth here and it’s tough to keep up with the infrastructure needed for that kind of growth. Our K-12 infrastructure has probably had the biggest challenges associated with the growth we’ve had.”
The Clark County School District is responsible, according to its website, for the education of about 320,000 students, which accounts for about three-fourths of the public school students in Nevada. Despite the region’s growth — which has been a positive for many businesses in the area — the consensus is that the public education system is lacking, especially with regard to teacher-student ratios.
In its state rankings for 2019, Education Week magazine listed Nevada as the lowest rated of all U.S. states for education opportunities and performance.
“We’re at the bottom, or close to the bottom, of every quality measure from a K-12 point of view and that has to be fixed at some point,” Snyder said. “We need a lot of help as we work to get that stain off our record.”
Other noted challenges for Las Vegas discussed by the panel included: water conservation, lack of affordable housing, and the advancement of automation, which is expected to impact Las Vegas’ hospitality-driven workforce.
Several panel members also mentioned challenges at the higher education level, but also lauded plans for a new UNLV medical school.
“The medical school is a big deal,” Snyder said. “This school of medicine will be the most important thing the university has ever done for the community, because there’s such a need there, and the most important thing the university has ever done for itself.”
As for the commercial real estate market, almost all signs point to a prosperous year in 2020, members of the panel agreed.
“Our overall picture for 2020 is a very vibrant one,” Roush said. “We’re excited about what’s happening in Las Vegas. From a real estate perspective, we feel that all sectors — office, industrial, apartments — are up right now. We’re at a zenith in the market for sure. We should all be proud of where this community is right now.”
Vegas Golden Knights President Kerry Bubolz, a transplant from Ohio, agreed. “If we get the medical piece right and education right, we have everything else,” he said. “Those are the bedrocks of our next phase of growth and if we get those, we can kill it as a community and be fantastic.”