Education
Artificially low tuition retards Nevada higher education
The state—to its detriment—boasts the country’s cheapest tuition
Governor Jim Gibbons' State of the State address and proposed budget provoked a great deal of ire from proponents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. The proposed budget would lower funding to the system by $473 million over the next two years. The cuts reportedly prompted NSHE Chancellor Jim Rogers to say, "I would blow my brains out if I thought this was going through." The Chancellor's suicidal tendencies aside, all the fulminations are largely unwarranted.
Choosing to Save
The Fiscal Impact of Education Tax Credits on the State of Nevada
Good ideas save money or improve service. Great ideas save money and improve service. Nevada lawmakers could do both by implementing a large‐scale education tax credit program.
Government: A different animal
The ‘economies of scale' model doesn't apply.
A recent op-ed by Dr. Elliott Parker, an economist at the University of Nevada, Reno, no doubt had Nevada's big government spenders salivating. According to Dr. Parker, Nevada's revenue problems result from low taxes, not from high spending levels. His argument relies on the fact that Nevada has a relatively small bureaucracy, which he claims ranks as the smallest in the country in terms of percentage of the state's population.
Evaluating ‘Policy Governance'
It hasn't improved education in Clark County.
Oh, what a difference 12 years makes. Or does it? Term-limited out after a dozen years on the Clark County School Board, trustees Mary-Beth Scow, Ruth Johnson and Shirley Barber have cast their last votes. When taking office in 1997, each committed to improving student achievement and conquering CCSD's overcrowding problems.
Heads in the sand
CCSD is once again ignoring a good idea.
Can the Clark County School District cut $63 million from its budget without touching classroom programs? Even if possible, would CCSD actually do it? It doesn't appear the district would even consider it.
Real solutions for higher education
Efficiency and innovation are what Nevada needs.
Jim Rogers – chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education – has been hitting the keyboard a lot lately, typing up legions of memos on Nevada's "broken" revenue structure, the need for new taxes, requests to borrow billions, and the necessity of increasing funding to education. Rogers has become bold enough to not just demand increased gaming and mining taxes but to demand an income tax as well.
Snubbing Nevada's veterans
Why the hostility from the Clark County Board of School Trustees?
Is the Clark County Board of School Trustees hostile to everything military? Or is the board just averse to veterans? The board recently cold-shouldered an offer of the unique privilege of having the nation's second Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corps academy in Clark County.
Playing with fire
Getting burned by the firefighter union
Residents of Clark County who want to invest in the future of their children should take away their schoolbooks and buy them a box of matches. Why? Because in Clark County, knowledge of fire and fire suppression is apparently of more value than is knowledge in specialized academic fields such as law.
Socialism in America
It's a bad idea, whatever we call it.
After more than 200 years, Americans still believe in individual freedom, and so socialism has remained a dirty word. The political Left has worked diligently to rebrand socialism in America, and thus it has gone by many names. Today, opportunistic politicians, illiberal academics and economically illiterate journalists are once again trotting out old myths to breathe new life into an idea that should be long dead.
NSEA sticks it to Culinary
Room tax hike sought by the teacher union would kill Culinary union jobs
It's been clear for a long time that little love is lost between the state teacher union and Southern Nevada's Culinary local. The hostility spilled into public view earlier this year during the state's bitter presidential preference caucus. While Culinary backed Barack Obama, the Nevada State Education Association teacher union backed Hillary Clinton, even going to court in an attempt to block Culinary members from voting at sites set up on the Las Vegas Strip.
