Education
Is going to college the best choice for students?
For some, certainly. For others, no. "More people need to realize that you don't have to get a four-year degree to be successful...
Read moreCharter schools in Nevada need more control
Nevada's charter school situation is embarrassingly poor. We have about 420,000 students in the public school system and yet fewer than 30 charter schools. What, exactly, is a charter school? Basically it's a normal public school where tuition is free for all students and virtually whoever applies must be accepted. (Usually, if there are too many applications, a lottery is used.) Unlike traditional public schools, however, charter schools are free from much of the usual bureaucratic red tape.
Nevada education: Spending more, learning less
Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Jim Rogers gave a speech on Friday night in which he bemoaned Gov. Gibbons’ cuts to higher education spending and sarcastically suggested Nevada should start telling prospective students: "Move to Nevada—Our education system is in such good shape that we will guarantee your child will graduate from eighth grade. We are sorry, but we are unable to guarantee that your child will be able to read or write or add and subtract." Rogers actually has a good point.
Why higher education isn't as bad off as they want you to believe
Week after week, Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Jim Rogers has been telling us how important higher education is, and how he needs more money to fund the system "properly." Ultimately, what he got for his efforts was a more than 30 percent reduction in appropriations from Gov. Gibbons' proposed budget. Needless to say, the chancellor is not happy. But is NSHE really as bad off as some would have us believe?
The same results, twice the cost
Only in government
The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) has proposed covering Nevada's budget shortfall by raising $1.2 billion in new taxes per year (or $2.4 billion in new taxes per biennium). One of the assertions PLAN makes to justify the tax hikes is that the money is needed to spend on Nevada's public education system. Undoubtedly, Nevada's education system needs improving. But it's extremely unlikely that spending even more money on our current approach to educating children will lead to any real improvement.
NPRI on TV – again
Tonight and tomorrow morning
Teaching Content is Teaching Reading
43 percent of Nevada's fourth-grade students can't read at grade level . And that is after we've spent over $40,000 educating each of them. Professor Daniel Willingham, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, thinks there is a better way than what we've been doing. And he's got a video...
Students, scholarhips, and saving tax dollars (in Florida)
One of Florida's best and most effective parental choice programs has been Step Up for Students, a corporate tuition scholarship program for low-income children. The corporate tuition scholarship allows corporations in Florida to make tax-deductible contributions to organizations that provide scholarships to low-income children to attend private schools or out-of-district public schools.
Pay attention to those facts behind the stats
Taking a closer look at tax and spend rankings
The big-spending crowd in Nevada continues to base its arguments on the assumption that the way to measure government efficiency is to focus on inputs - how many dollars we channel into government. But how much we fund government isn't a performance measure.
Goal: Actually educate children
The State of Nevada Controller's Office released its "Report to the Citizens" on Tuesday, and beyond the obvious (Nevada spent more money in FY2008 than in FY2007 despite the recession), what are most interesting are the "Performance Measures" Controller Kim Wallin reports.
