From a Newsreview.com article:
For years local government workers, including school teachers, have opted to join in a state retirement program because the state retirement system subsidized post-retirement health care and local governments provided a smaller subsidy.

Unfortunately, the locals didn't pay into the system the revenues needed to cover the costs; thus Senate Bill 544 was designed to end the problem.

Senate Finance Committee chair William Raggio of Washoe County said, "What's happened is the local governments that don't participate and don't pay in [to the state system] have been shuffling off their retirees to the state, and then of course that throws it out of whack.

[Washoe County School District spokesperson Steve ] Mulvenon describes the bill as telling school district employees this: "If you don't retire effective Nov. 30, '08--anything after that you're not going to get this state subsidy. ... So you've got to make a decision to jump ship effective November 30, '08 in order to get this existing subsidy. They will not let you come into that group after that date."

The school district's employee newsletter is more formal in its language: "One provision of SB544 states that effective November 30, 2008, employees of local governmental agencies will no longer be eligible to enroll and participate in PEBP [Public Employees Benefits Program, the state system]. ... To meet the November 30, 2008, deadline, employees must actually retire and join PEBP by September 1, 2008, as PEBP has a 60-day waiting period and coverage only begins on the first of the month. Employees who retire after this date will still have the option to continue health insurance coverage through the district."

The Assembly's budget committee held a short hearing on June 2 at which PEBP director Leslie Johnstone, Douglas County teacher Janice Florey, university faculty lobbyist James Richardson, and retired state workers lobbyist Martin Bibb all supported the bill. One assemblymember, Ellen Koivisto of Clark County, questioned whether the measure allowed enough time for the transition.

A threatened loss of post-employment health benefits would be all I would need to bail. With the lowered standards of education, poor performance of students, discipline problems, weak administrators, and a plethora of other ills, I don't see why anyone remains in teaching when casino service people make so much more money. It seems pretty clear which professions or occupations are most respected in Nevada by the money spent. If Jim Rogers (Nevada System of Higher Learning Chancellor) really thinks that Nevada businesses are seeking better educated workers, he must have his head in the sand--and there is a lot of it out here--otherwise the businesses would pay more and attract these people from elsewhere, but what we get is more service people, because that is what the businesses require. Basic economics, 101.