This Is Our Future.

Yesterday was the first day of school for Clark County School District (CCSD). We actually stopped by Gibson Elementary School in Henderson to check out the scene. We also stopped by there to hear local residents who had something to say about The Education Initiative (TEI).



We've heard plenty in recent days from the usual suspects screaming "DOOM!" over TEI every chance they find. They've even suppressed data showing how TEI can help Nevada's economy grow.

They can go ahead and continue suppressing UNLV studies. They can't, however, suppress local business owners like Ron Nelsen. He's the owner of Pioneer Overhead Door, and he's anything but afraid of TEI.



Electra McGrath is actually looking forward to TEI. She's a parent of a CCSD student. And her neighbors send their children to CCSD schools. Unlike TEI's well heeled opponents, Electra and her neighbors actually live the reality of public education in Nevada. This is why Electra supports TEI.



For far too long, we've heard endless rhetoric from Carson City followed by the constant lack of results. This is why Nevada schools are "grossly underfunded". And this is why grassroots education activists drew the paperwork for TEI.



At Gibson Elementary School, we caught a glimpse of Nevada's future. We noticed all the potential waiting at Leisure Circle. And we couldn't help but think of how much more potential could be realized if we were to just invest in schools like Gibson.

This is our future. These kids are our future. Why shouldn't we actually invest in our future? TEI's opponents can suppress economic studies, but they can't suppress this potential for a better future.

Stop Failing Them.

Today is the first day of school for the Clark County School District (CCSD). When we stopped by Gibson Elementary School in Henderson this morning, we witnessed dozens of parents dropping their children off as teachers were preparing for class. Everyone seemed to be ready for the school year.

Yet as parents, students, and teachers were ready for the new school year, the state and CCSD didn't seem to be. CCSD now has a teacher shortage. And on top of this, not all students have the materials they need. Textbook shortages have been reported across the valley. Many of the textbooks that are available are outdated. And English Language Learner (ELL) programs remain limited.

You know what can alleviate all these problems? The Education Initiative (TEI).





At Gibson Elementary School, local business owners and educators shared the reasons why they're supporting TEI. GymCats owner Cassie Rice stated her business is among the 13% of Nevada businesses that will have to pay the corporate margin tax under TEI. And she's perfectly fine with that, as she knows the value of public education to our community and our economy.



Lisa Muntean and Tom Wellman are CCSD teachers. They experience firsthand the challenges of educating so many kids on a shoestring budget. They know our kids need the extra $800,000,000 per year TEI will provide Nevada public schools. And they know our economy will benefit greatly (to the tune of at least $630 million added to Nevada's GDP in 2016 alone) from the additional investment in public education.





TEI's opponents have thrown just about everything (including the kitchen sink) at it. They tried to spin it away at Four Seasons. They tried setting up the "Esmeralda Straw Man" against it. They even tried various parliamentary tricks to stop the Nevada State Democratic Party from endorsing it. Yet each time they try to spin TEI away, they reveal something about themselves.

Have they been to any CCSD schools lately? Do they know anyone in a local public school? Don't they realize just how "grossly underfunded" Nevada schools are?

It's easy for them to make their philosophical case against TEI from their guard gated and gold plated bubble. And it's easy for them to complain about TEI's "flaws" when they've repeatedly failed to provide a realistic alternative. What seems to be incredibly difficult for them to admit is that they have no real alternative to TEI. They offer Nevada nothing but the same hot air and empty rhetoric that have failed this state for far too long.

At Gibson Elementary School this morning, we saw children going to school. We saw them enter a place where they encounter new ideas, new knowledge, and new opportunities. For far too long, we've been failing these children by failing to maintain public education. It's long past time for us to stop failing them.

There's More to This Story

We've seen the headlines. We've seen the studies. And we've seen the rankings. But is there more to this story?

The hard working folks at Vegas PBS and Clark County School District say there is. And they have slides to illustrate their side of the story. While the tale of public education in Nevada is often told as a horror story, the Vegas PBS presenters who came to visit the Henderson Democratic Club last night beg to differ.





Jami Miller dove into the nitty gritty of Nevada school rankings to demonstrate where there's been improvement in recent years. She also took a glance at where schools are improving the most... And where they're not. (Sorry, Michelle Rhee.)



And that wasn't all. Debra Solt then stepped up to talk about what Vegas PBS is doing to improve Nevada's economy. But wait, how might a PBS station be doing that? Sure, "Sesame Street" and "NOVA" are educational... But how do they strengthen Nevada's worforce?



It turns out that Vegas PBS has been working one one big GOAL since 2010, and that's to improve Nevada's workforce by providing advanced training courses and making them more accessible to more Nevadans who need them.



It's amazing to think of everything Vegas PBS & CCSD are doing in the community to build a stronger and better educated workforce. And it truly is what we need more of. If we're to ever free ourselves from our own prison, then we must break from the mistakes of the past and build the solid foundation we need for a brighter future.

It's just too bad we can only imagine what our public education system could do if it wasn't so "grossly underfunded". Just imagine what our public infrastructure could support & sustain if we actually kept it up. Instead of having to explain why we're "not really in 51st place", we could aspire to be more than just 36th.

Busted

Yesterday, the air conditioning system broke down at Rundle Elementary School in Las Vegas. And already, Clark County School District (CCSD) officials warn that this won't be the last time we hear about busted A/C systems in local schools. So watch out this summer!



And remember this next time Governor Brian Sandoval (R-Hocus Pocus) claims all is well with Nevada schools. Yesterday, he boasted, "Better Schools, No New Taxes". But in reality, schools are still grossly underfunded. They'll just be slightly less grossly underfunded because Governor Sandoval has agreed to extend the politically convenient (yet ridiculous policy of) Sunset Taxes.

So now, we have this.

Sen. Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, said that much of the governor’s new education spending reflects the costs of educating more children than in previous years.

“That’s not new programs or (replacing) programs we’ve cut,” she said. “It’s the cost of doing business and enrollment growth.”

The $120 million spending for new programs pales in comparison to what Sandoval and former Gov. Jim Gibbons slashed from state education budgets during the recession. Smith pegged that number at $700 million.

Yet again, Governor Sandoval has resorted to fiscal chicanery to dress up his budget. Who needs to actually properly fund our public infrastructure when one can just spin away the woes and attack one's political foes at the same time? Problem solved... Except that it's truly not.

Yet while Governor Sandoval and legislators bicker over political optics in Carson City, students in Las Vegas are missing school days because of the busted A/C system. Keep this in mind. And that's not the only busted thing here.

The Right Way to Fix Education Funding Formulae

How many times have we heard the complaints about Nevada shortchanging our own kids? And how many times have we specifically heard the complaints about Nevada shortchanging its most populous county, the place where over 70% of our people live and where about 80% of the state's tax revenue is collected? All too often, we hear rumors of solutions brewing in Carson City. But this time, some there are actually determined to fix both problems.

But of course, there's a catch. Not everyone seems determine to solve both problems.

Democratic leaders have said achieving “funding equity” is their top priority. Technically, that means ditching the decades-old funding formula that favors sparsely populated counties in favor of a “weighted funding formula” that directs more funding to districts with large populations of students in poverty, learning English as a second language or in gifted and talented programs.

In reality, that means diverting state funding from Washoe and rural counties to Clark County — which has been historically underfunded on a per-pupil basis.

Senate Majority Leader Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, said achieving funding equity is key to the rest of the Democrats’ education initiatives — including reduced class sizes, expanded full-day kindergarten and creating a pre-kindergarten program for at-risk students.

“Our kids are being disadvantaged in Clark County as opposed to everywhere else in the state,” Denis said. “We really need to look at that and do what is best for all of our kids, which includes Clark County.”

Nevada is one of just 14 states that doesn't consider poor students in its school funding formulae. And Nevada is one of only 3 states that doesn't consider English language learners in its school funding formulae. This obviously puts Clark County at a huge disadvantage. And that disadvantage is only worsened when taking into account the late Bill Raggio and his uncanny ability to find money for Northern Nevada schools... But often at Southern Nevada's expense.

There's often been talk of changing the funding formulae. But now that the balance of power in the Legislature has finally shifted to the south, it's now getting more attention.

But unless it's matched with progressive tax reform, it's likely doomed to fail. And here's why. The first consultant hired by the Legislature to examine funding formulae reform found that under an otherwise "status quo" budget, Clark County schools stand to receive 6% more funding if the formulae are changed... But Washoe County stands to loss 2%, and Eureka County loses almost half of its entire funding!

While Clark County schools desperately need their fair share of public funds, no one really benefits if that comes at the expense of the rest of the state. While Washoe County schools are better funded than Clark's, it's not as if Washoe schools are "rich". They can't afford to be cut.

Ultimately, Nevada needs more revenue to ensure that all our schools are properly funded. It's ridiculous to cause a "beggar thy neighbor" situation instead of taking a comprehensive approach to improve all Nevada schools. Instead, we can find the revenue to fund Southern Nevada schools without starving the North by simply cutting back on the corporate welfare in our tax code. But will enough folks in Carson City see what's obvious to us? That remains to be seen.

Shortchanged No More?

In today's RGJ, some Washoe County "business leaders" and the Nevada Superintendent of Higher Education claim they've found the reason why Nevada ranks so low in quality of public education. But of course, it's all the fault of those damned Vegas kids! That must be it. (/snark)

“By comparison (to Las Vegas,) Washoe looks like someone’s dream,” said Nevada Superintendent of Schools James Guthrie. [...]

“To be honest with you, I don’t worry about Washoe too much,” said Guthrie. He said there is work to be done in Washoe County, but the district has the right people and community support in place. [...]

“Clark County drives 75 percent of the numbers,” said Anne Loring, about negative national rankings. Loring is a former Washoe County School Board trustee and a board member of the [Education Alliance of Washoe County].

“We (Nevada) are an anomaly because we have one of the biggest school districts and here we are, so tiny,” Loring said.

Well, it's true that Nevada is such an anomaly because just over 70% of the entire state population is in Clark County. What makes it worse is that Clark County has been chronically shortchanged. When Southern Nevada schools are far less funded (per student) than schools in the rest of the state, Southern Nevada will drag down the entire state average.

What makes this even worse is that over many years and many legislative sessions, "the powers that be" in this state have mostly looked the other way despite all the growing evidence pointing to these serious problems. "The Great 2000s Real Estate Bubble" was always doomed to burst, but hardly anyone in Carson City wanted to talk about how to get past it until it was too late. Of course, they probably didn't want to talk about it because the bulk of the state's budget was built upon the bubble, and that everything from fire stations in Tonopah to community centers in Eureka to freeway projects in and around Reno depended on tourist dollars from the Las Vegas Strip. And even as the state had been able to fund some public infrastructure in Central and Northern Nevada thanks to "bubble" money from the last decade, Clark County still lacks sufficient higher ed opportunities at UNLV, sufficient health care, and plenty other areas of infrastructure that are critical to a successful community. Strangely enough, money from the primary economic engine of Nevada (Clark County) hasn't been used to properly maintain that engine. And because that engine has been neglected, the entire vehicle (Nevada) is in trouble.

And this brings us back to Dr. Robert Lang's segment on KNPR's "State of Nevada" this morning. The typical "powers that be" in Carson City have failed the entire state, but especially Southern Nevada has been neglected, and that's ultimately been to the detriment of everyone in Nevada. As this election season heats up and we eventually hear candidates talk about what they want to do in Carson City next year, we need to make sure that they follow through on their promises once elected, and that they finally stop avoiding what has to be done to heal our state and let Las Vegas become more self-sufficient.

Speaking of UNLV's Robert Lang, he took part this week in a summit for Southern Nevada business leaders and elected officials (from both local and state levels) on building a strategy to deliver more funding for Clark County and its public infrastructure.

The private sector, which has been frustrated over the years by southern lawmakers not sticking together, also is involved. Brookings’ Rob Lang is helping to kick off the event along with the Las Vegas Chamber’s Brian McAnallen.

“It is a conversation with a variety of partners in the community about issues in Southern Nevada and setting some Southern Nevada priorities for the upcoming legislative session,” said chamber spokeswoman Cara Roberts.

The daylong event apparently is designed to be a strategy session between local and state elected officials. Friction between those two groups -- the locals think the state wants to steal its money, and the state often has fulfilled that prophecy -- has not helped southern solidarity in the past. But maybe after the state Supreme Court all but ended the local government pilfering parade with the Clean Water Coalition decision that changed the arc of Session '11 and, perhaps, Gov. Brian Sandoval's career, maybe comity can be achieved.

This is an issue that we've often discussed before here, yet it's one that isn't discussed enough in Carson City. One would think they saw another painful reminder in November's steep drop in casino wins. Simply put, Nevada can no longer afford to ride a "one trick pony" that's a Las Vegas economy based only on gaming. And the only way we can solve this problem is by properly funding the public infrastructure that's necessary to allow new businesses to grow alongside the traditional staple of gaming.

One can hope the issues addressed at yesterday's summit will make it on the agenda in Carson City.

The morning started with presentations by Brookings Mountain West director Rob Lang and Las Vegas Regional Economic Development Council executive director Tom Skancke.

Lang detailed how the state’s outdated governance structure in many areas limited the opportunities for Southern Nevada to grow dynamically.

“This is nobody’s fault. This is just that we’re inheriting a legacy from folks who did not take on the challenge of adapting government to a larger scale that was part of the rapid growth process in this state,” he said.

He outlined a range of issues that need addressing at the state level, including finding new education funding formulas, restructuring the community college system, funding an on-campus stadium at UNLV and dealing with the effects of the federal health care law, the Affordable Care Act.

As I described above, there's a clear reason why Clark County has often underperformed the rest of the state on key metrics of community well-being. We just haven't had enough resources to properly fund our public infrastructure. Hopefully, that can start changing this year. With new leaders in Carson City and a state economy that's starting to reemerge from the worst recession in 80 years, Nevada needs to invest more in its economic backbone (Greater Las Vegas) in order to ensure a healthy and balanced economy in the future.

Why "The T Word" Still Matters

In today's "newspaper", we see a list of education bills on the docket for the 77th session of the Nevada Legislature. There's a whole range of bills that will be considered. However, there's one key issue that's missing from the list.

Fortunately, one (more) lawmaker recently spoke up when discussing the next session with The Sun.

We need to have some serious conversations about education and it being adequately funded, and what that means. … Everyone always talks about how they are for education. You don’t ever find anyone who is against education. So what I tell people is the question should not be: Do you support education? The question should be: Do you support funding education? Because at the end of the day, that’s where the parties diverge. That’s where you’re either for education in action or you’re just about education in words. I think for a very long time we’ve been about education in words.

Now, how you go about actually ensuring that this gets done, that’s the million-dollar question. There is a finite amount of funds, and unless we talk about the topic we should’ve been talking about for a very long time, too, which is tax structure reform and dealing with our revenue issue, then we’re never really going to get to the answer (of the question): How do we actually make education a priority by funding it adequately?

And Assembly Member Lucy Flores (D-North Las Vegas) has a great point. It's easy for politicians to say they "support education". It's been more of a challenge for many of these politicians to put the money where their mouths are.

As we've been discussing this month, a growing number of Nevadans are demanding real solutions for real tax reform that delivers real revenue for our schools that really need it. Of course, the forces defending the status quo have been (mis)using the failure of the CCSD bond this month as an excuse not to pursue tax reform. And of course, they do so by downplaying both the mendacity of the CCSD administrators and the clear desire of the voters for better funded schools... And schools better funded by way of having the largest corporations doing business here pay their fair share.

As we approach the start of the 77th session, we'll be hearing more and more about how much our state legislators "support education". OK, that's fine and dandy. So how about actually supporting public education by properly funding it? It's time to bring back "The T Word".

Why #NVLeg Should NOT Fall on CCSD's Sword

On Tuesday, Democrats kept control of both houses of the Legislature. So what does this mean? Shouldn't this be an opportunity to make some changes and work on real, long-term solutions to the state budget?

Some think not... Because CCSD screwed up its bond initiative.

In Clark County, it was the first time in at least 25 years that a school construction question was shot down — and it wasn’t even close. Voters pummelled the property tax increase 66 percent to 34 percent. Another question, which would have raised money for Henderson libraries, also was rejected. [...]

The state’s funding for schools is among the lowest in the nation and has been a constant source of tension for Democrats, moderate business leaders and their traditional allies in policy battles in Carson City.

The Clark County school construction vote “broke my heart,” said Billy Vassiliadis, the prominent political consultant who ran the school campaign this year pro bono, as he had other school construction bond measures in the past.

He said the campaign got off to a late start and struggled to raise money.

Polls showed it was “an uphill battle from Day One,” he said.

And what made it even more uphill was CCSD administrators aligning with NPRI on attacking teachers and their union. Because they were caught lying about district finances, it was difficult for voters of various stripes to trust CCSD administrators when they said they needed more money for school repairs. And because they failed to realize NPRI's true agenda of "starving the beast" of government and drowning public services in a "TEA filled bathtub", they were oddly caught by surprise when NPRI turned on CCSD bosses to attack the bond initiative.

So perhaps #NVLeg watchers in Carson City shouldn't put too much stock into the failure of these initiatives on Tuesday, and especially the spectacular failure of the CCSD bond initiative. After all if given a chance to vote on the kind of fairer progressive tax reform that The Education Initiative represents, they seem quite willing to pass that. And despite AFP's attacks on Democrats as "tax & spend LIB'RULZZZ!!!", they defied Ralston's odds and kept both houses of the Legislature.

So should Democrats be cautious when approaching the subject of tax reform next spring? Perhaps they should study the mistakes made by the likes of CCSD to avoid falling into that kind of political calamity. But with Nevada schools still as underfunded as ever and public infrastructure woefully lacking overall, now is not the time to give up on tax reform that makes sense for Nevada.

Why Did the Frog Give the Scorpion a Ride?

And the beat goes on. Never mind the current state of our schools...



NPRI wants to make an ideological point.

Even when NPRI sued the School District this summer — threatening to derail the tax question from appearing on the ballot — the nonprofit organization maintained it wasn't a political move.

On Tuesday, NPRI seemed to have finally taken a public stance on the issue.

NPRI spokesman Victor Joecks published an article on its website that blasted the district's tax-increase campaign as a "bait and switch" effort that would "hurt families (and) seniors, without increasing student achievement."

"The CCSD machine is, once more, waving the bait," Joecks said. "Don't bite.

What makes this story so funny in such a sick way is that that very CCSD machine aided and abetted NPRI earlier this year.

Many tried to warn CCSD administrators not to get too cozy with NPRI. After all, NPRI's goal is to starve public education to death! What on earth made Dwight Jones and Amanda Fulkerson believe that Victor Joecks and his merry band of "think tank" teabaggers cared one iota about improving public education? No matter how often they'd let NPRI stooges "slip" into CCSD's secure email network meant for official school business only, NPRI would eventually reach this point and sting them like this. [...]

They really should have known better. NPRI doesn't give a shit about our kids suffering under excessive heat and cold in decrepit public schools. If that means its PR hacks can spin the "OUTRAGE!!!" into further dismantling CCSD altogether and privatizing even more of what should be public education, then NPRI is happy. Frog, meet scorpion.

I said that just over two months ago, and I still stand by it today. Not only are attacking teachers and lying about finances bad policy, but they just make no political sense. Yet because CCSD administrators were so damned shortsighted in cozying up to NPRI in order to bloody local teachers, ironically enough NPRI has reemerged... But now, they're fighting to defeat CCSD administrators and the bipartisan backed school bond initiative meant to fix our broken school infrastructure.

If CCSD leaders had just negotiated with teachers in good faith, come clean on their finances, and refrained from giving aid and comfort to their true ideological enemies (at NPRI), they wouldn't be facing the kind of political pickle that they face now. But instead they played with "TEA" fueled fire, and now they're at risk of being burned. And to make things worse, Clark County students are at risk of being burned, too.

When Will We Ever Learn?

Here we go again. CCSD has forced local high school principals to make more cuts. Now, even more extracurricular activities are being eliminated, including the entire choir program at Arbor View High School. And work training programs are going bye bye at several schools. Oh, and Chaparral High School is even losing its school librarian!

It's bad. It's really bad. And what makes this even worse is that CCSD Administration are going out of their way to make this worse. Even though CCSD Administrators cry poor to the media, they actually have the money to pay their teachers and keep our schools functioning. But instead of doing what's both right and obvious, they'd rather make petty ideological "statements" that just happen to hurt our kids.

And in case that isn't bad enough, there's something even worse. Come on, you must know what's coming.

Honestly, it's pathetic seeing this epic CCSD food fight over mere crumbs. And it's disgusting to know that this kind of nonsense is bound to continue if Brian Sandoval gets his way and squashes all talk of progressive tax reform.

This is something that we discussed back in March.

But as long as our schools suck and as long as the rest of our public infrastructure continues to lag, Southern Nevada will continue to suffer our addiction to the extreme highs and extreme lows of "the bubble based economy". I'm sure I sound like a broken record sometimes, but I nonetheless feel the need to continue talking about this until we finally see some real action and real solutions. We really do have the potential to bring more high tech jobs into this state, especially in sectors like gaming and renewable energy where we have natural strength, but we'll never realize that potential if we don't invest in our "human capital".

And it still rings true today. How much more of this nonsense can we endure? And how much more suffering must our kids endure before we take action to correct this?

Between the continuing CCSD War on Teachers and the ongoing Nevada school funding crisis, there's plenty of unnecessary hardship that is being forced on Southern Nevada. Students shouldn't be denied a chance to fulfill their dreams, and they especially shouldn't have to see their dreams denied because of failed "tea party" ideology. It's time for Nevada to grow up and properly invest & nurture our future.

Great Timing, CCSD.

For some time, CCSD Administrators have cried that they're just too poor to keep all those horribly mean & expensive teachers on the job. Never mind that they always seem to find the money pay Dwight Jones a cool $282,571 (!!!) salary, fly him to fancy vacations conferences and recruitment sessions, and shower him with all the "support staff" and iPads he could ever desire. But now, we may finally see a bit of a reprieve as the feds are coming to the rescue.

The Clark County School District might be able to temporarily rehire about half of the 419 teachers it laid off last month after the School Board approved on Thursday the use of federal funding to serve the district’s most disadvantaged students.

The School District will receive nearly $82 million next school year through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of Title I, which grants federal dollars to public and private schools with high numbers of students from low-income families.

Each of these “Title I” schools will receive an additional $100 to $375 on top of the district’s per-pupil funding. The goal of the program is to lower the achievement gap between rich and poor students.

Nearly half — or $43 million — of this federal money will fund 199 additional teachers for one year at “Title I” schools. District officials maintained this federal money could not be used to restore lost teacher positions throughout the district, but only to fill “high-need” positions for one year at the 224 schools receiving “Title I” funding.

More than 1,000 teaching positions — including 419 current teachers — were eliminated from the district last month to help plug a $64 million budget deficit next fiscal year.

In order to qualify for federal Title I funding, schools must have at least 40% of students qualifying for free and reduced price school lunches. It's funny how these vultures administrators have no desire to feed kids from working poor families until it serves their political interests. I'd be laughing if we weren't talking about real life.

And in case that isn't disgusting enough, CCSD won't even commit to rehiring the teachers they just pink-slipped for no good reason. Oh no, they're already flirting with finding cheaper replacements. While it's often great to bring in new blood and fresh energy, it's egregiously offensive to ignominiously dump veteran teachers after threatening to bankrupt them, then refuse to hire them back after getting bailed out by the federal government in order to hire teachers!

I wish I could say I was truly surprised by this, but I'm not. After embracing the crazed anti-education teabaggers at NPRI, CCSD bosses truly have jumped the shark. They really seem to care more about boosting their own egos than doing what's right for local teachers and students.

Wherein CCSD Uses NPRI to Attack Teachers

There's something seriously wrong here. Do you notice it?

On Friday, NPRI sent an email bulletin to 12,000 teachers through the district’s email system, Interact. The unsolicited email blast drew the ire of several teachers, who accused the district of providing their work email addresses to NPRI.

“It’s another in a long line of attempts by the district to intimidate union members to drop their membership,” said Daniel Barber, a social studies teacher at Durango High School who received NPRI’s email on Friday. “This is an example of divide and conquer.”

However, the School District did not disseminate a list of teacher emails, said spokeswoman Amanda Fulkerson. District officials do not know how NPRI was able to gain access to teachers’ work email addresses, she added.

There are more than 40,000 employee email addresses in the district’s Interact communication system. Although the district’s four unions representing administrators, police, support staff and teachers are able to use the email system to contact their constituents, outside groups — such as vendors and non-union political groups — are not privy to this email database, Fulkerson said.

So an NPRI email asking CCSD teachers to drop their union (CCEA) was sent through CCSD's OFFICIAL, CLOSED email system... And CCSD's official Baghdad Bob spokesperson can not say how this happened? Are you f**king kidding me??!!

Maybe it's too difficult for The Sun to figure out, but hopefully it's not for you. And if you need a refresher on what's happening, here you go.

If the arbitrator had found evidence demonstrating that CCSD couldn't fill contractual obligations, he probably would have cut them some slack. However, the real evidence proved otherwise. Was he just supposed to ignore the facts and play Dwight Jones' game of make believe, where the district supposedly can't afford to pay teachers the salary step and education benefits long promised but (until now) never fulfilled, yet it can somehow afford to dump money into tons of iPads and "administrative support staff"? Give me a break!

Oh, and did I mention that teachers had to pay out of their own pockets for college courses that CCSD deemed necessary to qualify for the long promised education benefits? And that CCSD not only wanted to deny teachers future raises, but they even wanted to raid their bank accounts and take away past salary increases? So we were talking about a potential triple whammy where CCSD teachers would have had money taken out of their pockets, future salary increases denied, and all this debt left over from college courses that meant nothing? And media pundits like Coolican wonder why those "greedy teachers" were demanding justice?

Again, the arbitrator found that CCSD could indeed afford to pay teachers what they had earned. And yes, local teachers have had to work overtime and pay out of their own pockets to do their job. So why were they somehow required to roll over and accept the kind of torture that Dwight Jones wanted to subject them to?

This is what's really happening. The Nevada View broke this story last week, but apparently the facts were too hard for most of the local media to understand. Simply put, CCSD Administration has declared war on the teachers and their union. Las Vegas, welcome to Wisconsin.

It's no secret that CCSD Administration has been fighting the teachers' union rather than negotiating in good faith. So should we really be surprised that it is now allowing the rabidly anti-union NPRI to use its email system to spam teachers with anti-union infomercials? This is truly a bridge too far!

This is disgusting. This is outrageous. And seriously, this needs to end ASAP.

The irony here isn't lost on me. NPRI always claims to be interested in "private solutions for the public good". But now, it's using CCSD (as in public!) resources to spread its "tea party" message and bully teachers into dropping their union? How Scott Walker of them.

And when did Dwight Jones declare his allegiance to teabaggers? Doesn't he know that they want to defund and destroy public education? Doesn't he realize that NPRI won't be satisfied until CCSD is dead and replaced by voucher supported private schools? Is he so blinded by his desire to bust the union and break the contracts with teachers that CCSD had agreed to that he's willing to declare "the enemy of his enemy" as his new BFF?

This is just plain disgusting on so many levels.

Sunday School Rant

Finally, CCSD got some good news late last week. In a recent poll conducted by the First Ladies' education PAC, 55% of Clark County voters favor a capital bond program to repair and renovate aging schools. It's nice to see that Southern Nevada voters now understand the value in restoring our public infrastructure. But still, it's saddening... And really, maddening that we've reached this point.

We've talked about this before at great length. Far too many of Nevada's kids are languishing in overcrowded classrooms while Nevada's teachers are being overworked and underpaid. This has played a key role in scoring our illustrious last in the nation rankings in everything we want, as well as our first in the nation rankings in everything we don't want.

We've talked about this before. Nevada actually has great potential to forge a new path of smart growth and sustainable development. But as long as we continue to allow our PreK-16 public education network to languish, I fear we'll never realize our full potential.

This morning, Jon Ralston proclaimed that Governor Brian Sandoval is "on the right track", even though he still won't admit which track he really wants to put Nevada on. Perhaps Sandoval put his political career back on track by running to the middle and embracing the very "sunset tax" deal he shunned in 2010. However, all he's doing is embracing the status quo. And right now, the status quo is failing Nevada's youth and jeopardizing Nevada's future.

I believe Jim Rogers ultimately has it right. Sandoval's flowery language and promise not to cut schools any more may sound good, but it's not enough. It's not enough to merely stop the cutting. Our schools need healing, and our public education system needs to be revived and restored if we truly want to get Nevada back on track.

Still Wondering Why We Need Tax Reform?

Just today, we've seen plenty of scary headlines. CCSD is fighting the local teachers' union over salary step and education increases that the district once promised to teachers.



Meanwhile on the actual infrastructure side of things, some heavy hitters have emerged to help CCSD survive that.

As the Clark County School District contemplates a new, $5.3 billion capital program, four former Nevada first ladies filed paperwork Tuesday to form a political action committee to support the potential ballot initiative.

With the 1998 bond program comes to a close, the School District is likely to seek public approval for a new capital campaign, which may raise property taxes as much as $74 a year on a $100,000 home. The district estimates it will need to issue $5.3 billion in school construction bonds to repair and modernize its aging school buildings over the next decade. Voter approval is needed for the School District to increase its debt limit.

Former first lady Sandy Miller filed paperwork with the Nevada Secretary of State's Office to form a PAC to help get the vote out for the potential school bond program.

Sandy Miller, Secretary of State Ron Miller's mother, will chair the PAC, according to the PAC filing. Other members of the PAC include former first ladies Bonnie Bryan, Dawn Gibbons and Dema Guinn. [...]

If the new capital bond program were approved, the majority of the money - about $3.4 billion - would go toward renovating and replacing old schools. About $1 billion would go to new technology and equipment for schools. The rest of the bond money would help build new schools in growing regions of the valley, and help the district strive for "educational equity" among its schools.

Especially since "The Great Recession" hit, Nevada's K-12 schools have been hurting. Yet even before the recession hit, Southern Nevada schools especially had a hard time keeping up with rampant population growth. And for some time now, local teachers have been hit hard by the cuts and the continued denial of once promised benefits that help them survive. And of course, the students here have probably suffered the most as their future career opportunities have been limited by the poor state of public education in Nevada.

So now, CCSD and the teachers have to fight over a budget that's been slashed to the bone, and four former Nevada First Ladies are stepping up to rescue a school bond measure that should be a "no-brainer" (except for the fact that it will be paid for by raising property taxes). This is really looking pathetic.

Perhaps this explains why the state teachers' union at least looks to be having some change of heart after initially turning down the AFL-CIO's business tax initiative.

Lynn Warne, president of the Nevada State Education Association [NSEA], welcomes the attention all three tax initiatives are bringing to the state's need for new sources of revenue. In terms of education, Warne says, Nevada classrooms are operating with less funding than was allocated in 2003.

"We've gone backwards in funding for nearly a decade in the state. The initiative efforts demonstrate the frustration on the part of voters and parents that the legislature hasn't done right by our kids and schools, so they are taking it right to the voters."

Proposals are also being floated to raise taxes on mining and gaming in Nevada, but Warne says only the AFL-CIO initiative specifically targets dollars for education. Backers of the business profits tax have until mid-November to gather enough signatures to send the issue to lawmakers, and if they refuse to act, it goes on the ballot in 2014.

While NSEA still won't commit to endorsing the AFL-CIO tax initiative now, they're also not ruling out endorsing the initiative later this year. I guess they're realizing that Nevada AFL-CIO is determined to collect signatures this year, the workers have a powerful message of economic justice behind them, and some badly needed $1 billion a year in public school funding is at stake. Oh yes, and they must be realizing that our problems won't ever be solved if we keep delaying tax reform.

And that's really at the center of this. For far too long, Nevada has ignored the trouble in our tax code and the woes in our public schools. Now that we're just emerging out of the greatest recession experienced since "The Greatest Generation" were youngsters, we're really feeling the pain. Brian Sandoval may continue to try to spin it all away by showing us a pretty "sunset", but at the end of the day we must realize we have to prepare for tomorrow. We'll never really be ready for the challenges that lie ahead if we keep denying that they even exist.

Brian Sandoval to Nevada Students: "No Breakfast for You!"

No, really. I'm not even kidding.

Gov. Brian Sandoval has vetoed four more bills, including one to require certain public and charter schools to supply a free breakfast to children and another to allow inmates out of prison earlier.

The governor said Assembly Bill 137 would require free breakfast at any public school, including a charter school that is eligible to operate a program of nutrition in accordance with federal regulations. The bill said the breakfast must be served after the day begins in the classroom in a transportable manner or in the cafeteria.

Oh, I can already hear the excuses on AB 137...

"We can't afford it!"

"The school districts can decide on that."

"No freeloaders!"

Here are the facts. This is a FEDERALLY FUNDED PROGRAM. The money is already there, as it's distributed by USDA. And we're talking about kids from working poor families where they may not be able to get breakfast at home.

And think about the return on investment.

Many children do not eat a nutritious breakfast every morning. Often families are living on very tight budgets and can’t afford to provide good breakfasts at home every day nor the money to buy them at school. Regardless of income, families today live busy lives that often make it difficult to sit down long enough in the morning to eat a nutritious breakfast. Sometimes children are not physically capable of eating breakfast at home when they first wake up. Other children may have long commutes to school or long periods between breakfast at home and school lunch, making breakfast at school an important option.

Studies conclude that students who eat school breakfast increase their math and reading scores as well as improve their speed and memory in cognitive tests. Research also shows that children who eat breakfast at school – closer to class and test-taking time – perform better on standardized tests than those who skip breakfast or eat breakfast at home. Evidence has grown that children who eat school breakfast are less likely to be overweight, and have improved nutrition – they eat more fruits, drink more milk, and consume a wider variety of foods than those who don’t eat breakfast or have breakfast at home.

Schools that provide universal breakfast in the classroom report decreases in discipline and psychological problems, visits to school nurses and tardiness; increases in student attentiveness and attendance; and generally improved learning environments. Universal school breakfast refers to any school program that offers breakfast at no charge to all students, regardless of income.

So what's the issue here? Did Sandoval just have to throw this bone to teabaggers (by denying breakfast to poor kids)? Are certain folks in Carson City that happy to watch poor kids starve? Does Clark County School District need yet another excuse to do nothing about the suffering happening under its watch?

Yet again, Nevada leads the way in kicking the working poor while they're already down.

From the Mouths of Babes

More of the voices of the revolution hitting my doorstep on Monday. These kids are so smart, and it's a shame that we've been short-changing them for far too long. Perhaps we'll change this? For the better?

Maybe these kids are more than smart enough to outsmart the closed minds?