Ignoring 50 years of spending history, Sebelius wants to throw money at public schools
Fact: Nevada's nearly tripled inflation-adjusted, per-pupil spending on education in the last 50 years.
But according to liberal columnist Steve Sebelius, Nevada has yet to throw money into its educational system.
We can't ignore that some blame from the present crisis belongs in Carson City, where the Nevada Legislature has repeatedly failed to create an adequate tax system to fund the state's schools properly. While the Legislature did find the time in 2011 to enact modest reforms to teacher tenure (reforms that were passed with Democratic support, it should be noted), discussions about a broad-based tax system were fumbled. Teachers and the school district argue over scarce resources, yet mining companies pay a pittance while the price of gold soars, and businesses pay nothing on their gross receipts despite repeated recommendations by experts that they be taxed.Sebelius is hardly alone in claiming Nevada needs to spend more on education, even though Nevada, you know, has nearly tripled inflation-adjusted, per-pupil spending in the last 50 years.
We can do better. We can get a better tax system, we can reduce dropout rates and increase graduation rates. We can improve test scores. Money isn't the only factor in that success, but it cannot happen without money.
And for those about to take to their keyboards to say throwing money at the problem won't help, I ask this: Why don't we at least try it first? (Emphasis added)
Last week, an unelected, unaccountable arbitrator from California rewarded the Clark County Education Association's stall tactics and sided with the CCEA in its contract dispute with the Clark County School District. Teachers received raises, but CCSD announced it will have to lay off up to 1,000 teachers to compensate for the salary increases.
Liberal legislators, like Sen. Mo Denis and Assemblyman David Bobzien, immediately declared that lack of funding was the real problem, despite Nevada, you know, nearly tripling inflation-adjusted, per-pupil spending in the last 50 years.
Like Denis, Assemblyman David Bobzien, D-Reno, believes the real problem is that the Legislature has failed to fund education adequately.The Nevada State Education Association and the AFL-CIO are currently working on petitions to raise taxes in order to funnel more money into education, despite Nevada, you know, nearly tripling inflation-adjusted, per-pupil spending in the last 50 years.
"Clearly we have more work to do next session so that districts aren't faced with these difficult decisions that result from constrained budgets," said Bobzien, chairman of the Interim Committee on Education and the Assembly Education Committee.
And this is how you know you're a liberal. The government nearly triples inflation-adjusted spending on something, in this case, per-pupil education, and after that unaccountable spending fails, you then declare that it's time to start spending the real money!
