Last week the five-month stand-off in the Nevada State Legislature over whether new taxes ought to be enacted to balance the state budget was cracked wide open. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled that the long established tradition of the State grabbing money from local entities to get it through the rough times is a violation of the State constitution.

The decision went off like a bomb in Carson City on Thursday. This was because a broad interpretation of the decision would also affect about $657 million in the budget that had been adamantly advanced by Governor Brian Sandoval as a way to avoid tax increases.

The Governor’s plan, for all intents and purposes, was to swipe the funds from local government entities into the state coffers to shore up against tax increases. After all, the Governor had remained unwavering on his campaign pledge to not raise taxes. He had stalwartly taken a hard line against every Democrat-generated tax idea that had popped up in the Legislature; and he had been able to keep the Republican legislators in lock step behind him on the matter. All this was no small task, indeed. But now, with the court decision suddenly taking the $657 million of local entity funds out of the cookie jar, there were no options for the Governor but to accept some variation of tax increases.

Over a third of the Governor’s proposed money shuffle was to be diverted from school bond reserves. The prospect of this, and other proposed state education cuts, had caused pandemonium in the state education system in recent months. It had everyone in education, from the top brass down, fretting a funding catastrophe and preparing for the absolute worst. Though the storm is far from over for state education, last week’s court decision may have lightened the cloud cover a bit.

But this exercise of considering a worst case scenario to its point of crisis was far from futile. Forcing the education establishment to the point of the precipice opened the door for discussion of reforms that might never have been considered otherwise. Topics like performance pay for teachers, overhauling criteria for teacher evaluation, terms of probation for teachers, and so-called teacher tenure have been brought to the forefront of conversation like never before. This was a good thing.

For example, when faced with the cold economic reality that over a thousand teachers may have to be let go, just from the Clark County School District, folks naturally wanted to be sure that the teachers that are left behind are the best and the brightest. No one-size-fits-all formula for reducing the teacher work force would be adequate under such circumstances. No matter how carefully it was originally negotiated, the “last in, first out” policy of using seniority as the sole consideration in layoffs just doesn’t cut it when the direst scenario is staring us in the face.

Of course, once the subject is open, it’s hard to draw the line on it as a crisis only situation. If “LIFO” is a bad deal in the worst of times, it is no better in the best of times. No matter the economic conditions, “LIFO’ is simply not a good policy for anyone; except maybe the very worst of teachers out there. Such a blind, blanket policy is bound to result in many of the best teachers being let go without regard for their excellent performance. And since these more junior teachers are lower on the pay scale it will take more such layoffs to balance the budget, impacting more people, more classrooms and more students. Such a random, one-size-fits-all policy is surely not about ensuring quality education.

So, say what one might about the Governor’s obstinate no-new-tax stance, it has opened the door for some meaningful discussion on issues of real reforms like this. But with the legislative stalemate now finally split open there is now the danger of everyone just going back to business as usual. If the budget impasse comes to a hasty and thoughtless end this week, state legislators might just wrap things up and go home heralding to all that the crisis has been averted. If this happens it would be very unfortunate indeed. Don’t be fooled by it because nothing could be further from the truth. In the realm of public education in Nevada, the crisis is still very much alive.