Patrick R. Gibbons
Simple economic errors
When you read some of the editorial pages in Nevada's newspapers, or one of Jim Rogers' letters, you'd be wise to read with a bit of skepticism. We hear claims about the government creating jobs, education driving economic development, and budget cuts destroying the economy.
Who killed the 65mpg car?
A few years back a left-of-center "documentary" titled "Who Killed the Electric Car" pointed the finger at GM as a member of some oil cabal trying to maintain the dominance of gas-powered cars for all eternity. Ironically, GM had done more than any other company in researching and developing the electric car.
What if we increased education spending?
Increasing funds for public education won't result in drastic increases in student achievement. In fact, there is no significant relationship between spending and student achievement. Nevertheless, the advocates of education spending pray that Nevada will summon the "courage" to raise taxes.
Courage to reform
Spending more per student has not produced the results we've been promised for the last 50 years. To make matters worse, it seems there is a very small but negative relationship between spending more money on education and low-income student achievement. Spending more money on education is a policy that appears to leave the poor behind.
Does more spending increase student performance?
When one takes capital outlays, school debt and other payments into the equation, Nevada's K-12 per-pupil spending was $10,420 in 2006 (in 2008 dollar values), which moves Nevada's per-pupil spending ranking up to 31st in the nation from the 44th ranking often cited. As interesting as this is, the per-pupil ranking is still useless.
Nevada is No. 1 in the nation
Recently I reported that Nevada ranked No. 1 (excluding D.C) for under-reporting per-pupil spending in K-12 education. I recently discovered Nevada has another No. 1 education ranking in which it smashes the competition: debt-to-expenditure ratio.
No Magic Beans
Nevada cannot buy progress in education
Students are back in school now, and pundits, reporters, policy wonks, bureaucrats and politicians are back to debating what the state's budgetary shortfall means for the future of Nevada public education.
Moving on up
Nevada's actual per-pupil spending in 2006 was $9,738 (total expenditures divided by student population). That figure is 32.5 percent higher than the state's reported official figure of $7,345.
My bad
Well, you can't be right all the time; I'm not omniscient, after all. Last week I reported Nevada's per-pupil spending to be $8,926. But I was wrong: It's higher.
He didn't get the memo
Over the weekend, Terry Lanni, chairman and CEO of MGM Mirage, joined the tax-and-spend, big-government chorus in an article in which he called for more taxes on Nevada's businesses.
