Why Shouldn't Nevada Have a Lottery? (Let Me Explain.)

Yesterday, we touched on both the threats and opportunities to Nevada posed by online gaming. Today, we need to look at another form of gambling that's been getting quite a bit of attention lately.



Northern Nevadans and Southern Nevadans are rushing to buy those "Mega Millions" tickets and catch "Lotto Fever". And we have our next door neighbors to thank for this.

"The amount of money we send to schools is a small drop in the bucket, everyone would admit that," Lopez said. "But during an economic downturn when school districts are looking at what they have to cut, every little bit helps."

Officials are projecting the lottery will provide more than $1 billion for public education in California this fiscal year. For the fiscal year 2010-11, California received $3.4 billion in lottery revenue. The state returned about $1.1 billion of that to K-12 schools, community colleges and University of California and California State University systems.

So we all have a chance to live like the OC Housewives while schools get plenty of money. What's not to love? And why can't Nevada cash in on California's good fortune?

Bottom line: It's unconstitutional.

Yet despite our constitutional ban on state lotteries, many Nevadans are again talking up the possibility of bringing the "Mega Millions" here. Is it time to finally amend the constitution and start selling lottery tickets here in Nevada?

Not so fast. While forty states, including California, sell lottery tickets on the premise that more money will be going to public education, it's not really as simple as that. Earlier this year, there were questions of what's happening with money that the State of Florida has been netting from its lottery.



Looking back at California, here's what often happens with state lottery funds.

"That's a question that is frequently asked. A lot of people think [the state lottery] provides more revenues than it does," said Margaret Weston, an expert in K-12 school finance for the Public Policy Institute of California.

The state Lottery and its myriad games got started in 1985 as a way to generate funds for public education without adding another tax. It's one of the only state funds that are doled out equally to everyone. At least 50 percent of tickets sales go back to the public as prizes. Public schools get about 34 percent of revenue from sales.

Each school gets $135 per student, though they pass it out in different ways. The peak of Lottery funding for kindergarten through 12th grade hit during the 2005-06 school year. The average each year hovers between $40 to $45 billion, less than two percent of the state's public school funding. [...]

Students at Millswood Middle School use their daily planners to keep track of homework and assignments. Funds from the California Lottery provided the $4,000 to dole them out at the beginning of the school year.

"We receive a whopping $8,000 from Lottery funds. Half of that is spent on the school planners the students get at the beginning of the school year. The other approximately $4,000 was spent on a teacher computer and projector," wrote Sheree Flemmer, principal.

Now I'm sure it helps to have that extra change in school pockets to pay for things like daily planners and projectors. However, we have to realize that we're only talking about pocket change here. Lotteries are no panacea for public education.

In October 2007, The New York Times investigated state lotteries and found that, on average, they only deliver about 30 cents for every dollar spent on tickets and games.

For years, those states have heard complaints that not enough of their lottery revenue is used for education. Now, a New York Times examination of lottery documents, as well as interviews with lottery administrators and analysts, finds that lotteries accounted for less than 1 percent to 5 percent of the total revenue for K-12 education last year in the states that use this money for schools.

In reality, most of the money raised by lotteries is used simply to sustain the games themselves, including marketing, prizes and vendor commissions. And as lotteries compete for a small number of core players and try to persuade occasional customers to play more, nearly every state has increased, or is considering increasing, the size of its prizes — further shrinking the percentage of each dollar going to education and other programs.

In some states, lottery dollars have merely replaced money for education. Also, states eager for more players are introducing games that emphasize instant gratification and more potentially addictive forms of gambling.

And so far, it doesn't look like that's changed for the better. Rather, as state lotteries have pumped even more money into building up "Mega Millions" style jackpots and promoting them with ever flashier TV, radio, and billboard ads, the overhead costs are quickly gobbling up money that was originally promised to fund K-12 schools and college education.

Let's go back to my old stomping grounds in "The OC" for a moment and see how local schools are looking forward to that huge lottery windfall.

In Orange County, the lottery provided an additional $135 per student for K-12 schools last school year. The county received a total of $88.6 million from lottery revenue last year, or about 1.2 percent of the $4.2 billion local schools spend annually. Local schools are expecting to cut more than $250 million combined from their budgets for next year alone, on top of the more than $1 billion cut since 2008.

"I want the whole $540 million jackpot all for Orange County. That would really solve all our funding problems," county Superintendent William Habermehl said. "The lottery has never really provided as much money to schools as what was sold to the public when it was implemented. If you look at all 6 million students in California, an extra $100 million will only give you a few extra dollars per student."

Yes, that's really all California is getting when Nevadans line up in Primm and Verdi to cross the state line and buy their "Mega Millions" tickets. Perhaps a school in Lodi will get to buy a few more boxes of day planners, and perhaps another school in Costa Mesa will get to buy a computer. That's really it.

So before we again hear another round of complaints on why Nevada doesn't have a state lottery, remember this. At least with our state sanctioned gambling, the casinos have to pay for their own advertising and their own upkeep. But when the state becomes the casino, we flip the bill and we don't always win the jackpot we were looking for.

Sure, the likes of MGM Resorts CEO Jim Murren are looking out for their own bottom line. But again, under the current system MGM pays to run its own casinos. And considering that we've already had to learn the hard way that casinos alone won't save our economy or our schools, should we really expect a state lottery to solve our budget problems?

Surprise! Our Economy Still Sucks.

Why is anyone surprised? Seriously.

Nevada scored 21.3 out of 100 on the Opportunity Index, putting the state in last place in the ranking by Opportunity Nation, a campaign from Be the Change, and the American Human Development Project, part of the Social Science Research Council.

The ranking is based on criteria in three general categories: Economy, education and community health and civic life.

Nevada scored 4 out of 10 in the economy category, 1 out of 10 in education and 1 out of 10 in community health and civic life. The national averages for all three categories were between 5.4 and 5.6.

Nevada had the lowest scores in the nation of the percentage of high school students who graduate on time and the number of preschool-aged children enrolled in school. Plus, the report said 11.2 percent of Nevada teenagers are not in school or working.

The Silver State also received the lowest score in the nation on access to health care, with 86.7 primary care providers per 100,000 residents.

And the state had the second highest violent crime score in the nation, with 707 crimes per 100,000 people.

WOW! We continue to FAIL our way to the top of every list we shouldn't want to be on!

Look at this map and where you see the deepest, darkest blue (or opportunity). Look at the top states. Guess what? The likes of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Minnesota invest in their people... And sadly, we don't.

Remember this story from June? If even the teachers can't afford to stay in our schools, can we really expect the kids to learn? And if too many of the kids here don't learn, will we ever develop the kind of workforce we need for a healthy, diverse economy?

Maybe the Rebels are doing great on the b-ball court, but we're not succeeding where it really counts. I suspect what I said in June still stands.

There is a reason why education is so valuable. It really can be the key to unlocking a better future. But because Nevada doesn't value public education, we see the most of the best and brightest avoid this state like the plague while our economy remains hopelessly overdependent on casinos and tourism.

There's a reason why people in this state were crying out from January to March all the way to May. And even though Nevada has a budget, it still doesn't really do anything to solve our long-term problems. That's why there's a growing demand to take action next year, regardless of what Sandoval and The Legislature (don't) do in the interim.

Trust me. Daniel Avellino isn't the only teacher Nevada is losing. There are more like him who can no longer survive under the current system. And as long as we keep treating teachers like crap and continue underfunding our schools, public education will continue to circle the drain in the toilet in this state. Something has to be done to fix this. We can't keep waiting while our teachers are being forced to give up their passion and our students are being forced to give up their dreams.

All I want for Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa is a Nevada that realizes we can no longer shortchange ourselves and our future.

Everything You Need to Know About the EPIC FAIL of Nevada's Schools

The Sun has a story this morning about Daniel Avellino, a second grade teacher at Aggie Roberts Elementary here in Henderson. Because of all the budget cuts of the last two years, Avellino has had a harder time paying off his college debt... Or even paying the bills and buying groceries.

So what is he doing? Oh, he now has a second job... That may soon become his new career.

Over time, Avellino hopes to turn his second job into a full-time career. He recently took another acting job playing Tony in “Tony ’n Tina’s Wedding” at Planet Hollywood, and is starting to look for an agent.

“I definitely don’t see myself in the classroom two years from now,” he said. “I chose to teach because I’m good at it, and I love it. But it’s like any job. If you’re not being treated right, you go somewhere else where they would appreciate you.”

Holding down three jobs and working more than 80 hours, six days a week comes at a price. The stress from “basically performing from 9 in the morning to 10 at night” and the lack of sleep has exacerbated Avellino’s headaches stemming from his sports-related concussions as a child, he said.

However, acting is fast becoming his second passion.

“It’s almost to the point where when people ask me what I do, I don’t say teacher anymore,” he said. “You’re embarrassed to say you’re a teacher.

“It’s heartbreaking. I feel like I’m being forced out of this position, but you can only take so much. You have to say enough is enough.”

So why am I so upset? Read this.

“Last year, pay freeze. This year, a cut in pay. I don’t want to stick around to see what happens next year,” he said as the nine-month school year winds to an end today.

Armed with a master’s degree in elementary education, the Buffalo, N.Y., native moved to the Las Vegas Valley five years ago to pursue his teaching career. Then, Las Vegas was a boomtown, and like many institutions, the School District was experiencing growing pains.

The influx of thousands of new students necessitated more classrooms and staff, so the School District built more schools and hired young, passionate teachers such as Avellino.

“I love teaching,” he said. “I like to keep it fun and creative, so I get a little silly in the classroom … When (students) see you care about them, they’ll do all the assignments, anything.”

But the economy tanked, and Avellino became one of more than 1,000 School District teachers who were “surplused” in March to plug a projected $407 million budget deficit. Teachers whose positions were eliminated at schools where there was an excess might be hired at other schools in the district, however “it’s basically the luck of the draw,” he said.

He sounds like the kind of teacher we'd love to have our kids learn from. But instead of encouraging good teachers like Avellino to educate our next generation of Nevadans, we're pushing them away with budget cuts. And people wonder why Nevada is ranked 50th out of 50 in offering our students a chance for success?

There is a reason why education is so valuable. It really can be the key to unlocking a better future. But because Nevada doesn't value public education, we see the most of the best and brightest avoid this state like the plague while our economy remains hopelessly overdependent on casinos and tourism.







There's a reason why people in this state were crying out from January to March all the way to May. And even though Nevada has a budget, it still doesn't really do anything to solve our long-term problems. That's why there's a growing demand to take action next year, regardless of what Sandoval and The Legislature (don't) do in the interim.

Trust me. Daniel Avellino isn't the only teacher Nevada is losing. There are more like him who can no longer survive under the current system. And as long as we keep treating teachers like crap and continue underfunding our schools, public education will continue to circle the drain in the toilet in this state. Something has to be done to fix this. We can't keep waiting while our teachers are being forced to give up their passion and our students are being forced to give up their dreams.

Californication... Is Here?

Here we go again. Republicans scream when Shelley Berkley tries to talk sense into them.

“I’m very careful not to criticize people in this room,” Berkley said, noting the debate that stretched almost until midnight on Tuesday. “But in my mind, gutting our education system is shortchanging our children and almost as importantly as that, it is undermining our ability to diversify our economy.”

Sandoval attended the speech but was unavailable after to give a reaction to Berkley’s comments.

Talking to reporters after her speech, Berkley said lawmakers can’t let revenue challenges deprive “an entire generation of people” of an education and stressed the importance of diverting federal dollars into Nevada’s education system.

And The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce (!!!) tries to do the same.

Seems the conservative folks over at Keystone Corporation are not happy that the supposedly conservative folks over at the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce are open to tax increases if certain reforms are enacted, that the chamber believes the budget cuts are deep and severe.

So they're out to sic Bob List on them? Wait, isn't he already busy trying to shove nuclear waste down our throats?

Wait a minute... Haven't we been down this road before? And is this getting way too familiar?

But at bottom there’s still the same old question: How much pain and inconvenience will taxpayers have to suffer before they understand that there’s no such thing as a free lunch? How many potholes and unsafe bridges; how many cancelled university classes; how high the tuition; how short the school calendar; how slow the response from the fire department, how long the wait at the DMV? Or do we simply not care?

The [-----], said GOP Assembly leader [-----], is trying to scare people by trying to tell them that the budget deficit either requires even more severe cuts than the state has already made or the tax extensions the governor wants.

That’s a false choice, quoth [---], "It's disingenuous to scare people." You can fix it all with fiddles and efficiency. And pigs can fly.

The [------] and [---] fellow Democrats say they’re not trying to scare people, just going to tell the facts, though he’s also said -- as he did at a meeting of the Service Employees International Union the other day -- that the worst case scenario [meaning no tax extensions] would be really ugly. He also says he’s going to focus on Republican districts and is urging his backers to “hug” a Republican. That’s not quite like saying kiss a frog, hoping he’ll turn back into a prince, but close enough.

[-------], the president pro-tem of the Senate, meanwhile, is saying he won’t support closing all of the remaining $15 billion budget gap with just cuts alone.

These blanks can easily be filled with the likes of Pete Goicoechea and Mark Sherwood on the GOP side, and by Steven Horsford and Sheila Leslie on the Democratic side. But guess what? It's an article about California's budget crisis!

Yep, that's right. Republicans here always make scary comments about this state becoming some sort of "Little California", but their very obstruction on the budget and diabolical brinksmanship games with state government are turning us into California!

Sometimes, I really do wonder if Republican legislators are spending time that should be used working on a budget deal to instead study up on how California Republicans have turned Sacramento into an endless game of "Mortal Combat"... Where the folks who get killed off are kids in need of education, and seniors & disabled in need of health care. Read Calitics' budget diaries and notice the strange air of familiarity to them.

It seems like both at the federal level and in other states, Republicans are exporting the California model of obstructing their way to broken government to the rest of the country.

So why are they obstructing? Why are they willing to drive Nevada off the cliff, California-style? As always, Desert Beacon has the answer.

Truth be told, federal income taxes on the American middle class are now at an historically low level. [CBPP] This begs the question, if federal taxes on middle income Americans are at an historically low level, and the Nevada "tax burden" is one of the lowest in the nation especially as measured by "business climate" criteria [TTF]  -- then who is doing all the whining?

The answer to that question should be relatively apparent by now: Corporate Interests and Upper Income Earners. Thus, we are not speaking of "taxing people out of their homes," (middle income earners having the lowest rate since Presley was singing "That's All Right Mama"), and we're not speaking to "taxing people out of their businesses" (if indeed the Tax Foundation is correct and Nevada is ranked 4th in the nation in business climate).  Assemblyman Livermore, and his GOP cohorts, are evidently more concerned with the revenue side of the corporate world than with the revenue side of the state government balance sheet.  There's no particular reason that the Assembly debate on the state budget would end any other way than in a stalemate  [LVSun] since Republicans like Assemblyman [Pete] Livermore (R-Carson City) have adopted an ideological stance at variance with economic reality.  When the mantra "No New Taxes" morphs into "No Taxes At All" it's hard to move the discussion forward.

What makes the argument about "taxing people from their homes and businesses" ultimately risible is the drift of the tax burden away from the ultra-wealthy in this country toward middle income Americans: "This diminished tax burden on the wealthiest has contributed to the historically low federal revenue levels we are seeing today, and in turn, to higher deficits. The Congressional Budget Office projects federal revenue in 2011 will total 14.8% of GDP—the lowest level since 1950. At the same time that the tax burden has shifted away from the wealthy, this same top income group has enjoyed  massively disproportionate income gains.  Between 1992 and 2007, a time in which income for the average household and top one percent grew 13% and 123%, respectively, the income for the top 400 households grew fully 399%." [EPI ]

It's really about ideology. California Republicans do it all the time and try to get away with it by hiding behind undemocratic supermajority rules and procedures, and Nevada Republicans now look to be doing the same.

However, the ending hasn't yet been written for this "True Hollywood Story".

"Our review (of Gov. Brian Sandoval's budget) has led us to believe additional tax revenue may be necessary," wrote Hugh Anderson, chair of the Government Affairs Committee in a letter released this afternoon. "However, let me be clear: The Chamber's willingness to support additional tax revenue is absolutely dependent on the passage this year of significant and meaningful reforms that will fix systemic problems that are plaguing our state."

The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce has been seen as key to providing political cover for Republicans in the Assembly and Senate. Democrats need at least some support to pass a tax increase. [...]

Anderson laid out the effect of some of Sandoval's proposed cuts. It said class sizes would increase in grades 1 to 12 by two students, on average. It also said school district personnel would take a 7.8 percent pay reduction. It said core degrees would be eliminated from higher education.

If even The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce (!!!) is willing to come to the table and support badly needed revenues to keep our state alive, then Republicans need to be brought to the table. And as I said yesterday, this is the part where we go in and take them there.

Assembly Republicans Afraid to "Face the Budget"

“I ask you and I beg of you to think about the people you serve,” Assemblywoman April Mastroluca, D-Henderson, said. “Tell them we worked together to come up with a compromise to do what we thought was best...” [...]

Republican lawmakers did their own fair share of browbeating, accusing Democrats of putting on a disingenuous show for the public.

“The compromise and what you want is convenient when we have a forum and you try to paint these guys as hating kids,” Assemblyman Mark Sherwood, R-Henderson, said. “This is a farce.”

Republicans have accused Democrats of refusing to come to the table to debate reform measures on their priorities — an accusation that is flat wrong, according to Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas.

“Let’s name the bills you wish to have available,” Oceguera replied to Sherwood. “I believe that the construction defect bill, I have that bill, it is still alive. A (public employee retirement) reform bill, it’s still alive. Prevailing wage, we have that bill. Still alive. Tell me your other reforms. I think I answered all these questions.”

So last night, The Assembly was stuck at a stalemate over the budget. Despite all the public hearings, all the negotiations over other legislation, and all the public and private pleas for compromise, Republicans just said no and just walked away.

I wonder if they would have done the same if the very people they and Brian Sandoval are threatening would have been there in person.

I guess they need more of this...





And more of your input! Please keep sending messages to your legislators. It may seem "pointless" at first glance, but it really isn't. Let me tell you why.

Ultimately, these legislators have to face "we the people" in their next election. And while in Carson, they have to keep a running tab on who's contacting them on what. They only know that we're here when we tell them, and they only feel the pressure to come to the table when we apply that pressure.

As we've talked about before, it's long past due for the greedy, tax-evading mining corporations and "mega-box" multinational corporations to pay their fair share after making us "endure the pain" all by ourselves for far too long. And as we've talked about before, we need to get involved and stay involved to make a difference. So don't give up. Make these Republican legislators come to the table!

Power Away from the People?

At the last minute, AB 548 has come out of hiding. OK, so what's the big deal? And what is this exactly?

If passed, AB 548 would take away our right to vote for members of the Nevada State Board of Education that are supposed to supervise and guide K-12 public education statewide. This would essentially take power away from the people and concentrate it in the hands of a few. In this bill, state board members are instead appointed by The Governor.

Hear that? And get it? This is really nothing more than a thinly veiled power grab by Brian Sandoval and his "Tea Party, Inc." friends out to deform public education.

Don't believe me yet? Chris Miller from NSDC explains further.

Some other points to note:

1. AB548 would be taking away the right of the citizen voter for elected representation by REGION.
2. Most appointed positions are given to white males and are not reflective of demographics. Current board is comprised of 5 women and 4 men. Ethnically, there are 2 African Americans, 3 Hispanics and 5 Caucasian members.
3. AB548 would give the Governor a 'rubber stamp' Education Board to make curricula. textbook and policy decisions.

The last is important because last year in Texas, the conservative Texas State Board of Education approved new textbooks. Among the changes form the old books: Students would be required to learn about the “unintended consequences” of Title IX, affirmative action, and the Great Society, and would need to study conservative icons like Phyllis Schlafly, the Heritage Foundation, and the Moral Majority. The slave trade would be renamed the “Atlantic triangular trade,” American “imperialism” changed to “expansionism,” and all references to “capitalism” have been replaced with “free enterprise.” The role of Thomas Jefferson – who argued for the separation of church and state – is minimized in several places, and the standards would emphasize the degree to which the Founding Fathers were driven by Christian principles.

This is where things get really freaky. If the religious righties cause enough of a stink to scare Sandoval into throwing them some bones in appointing their own to the state board, we may end up with a Texas/Kansas like disaster of board members injecting radical right politics into public education. Do we want our kids subjected to religious dogma being preached in "science class"? Do we want them "learning" that "homosexuality is a crime against God"? Do we want them to "know" that "feminism is of Satan" and that "slavery is OK because it's in The Bible"?

Don't laugh it off. Not that long ago, folks thought it was impossible for extremists to take over the Texas and Kansas Boards of Education. But now not only has that happened, but sound education is under attack in even more states. It can clearly happen here, so it's imperative for us to protect our schools from partisan politicking in Carson City.

Even if that nightmare scenario doesn't occur, it would be bad enough to replace elected officials accountable to "We the People" with unelected cronies "friends of The Governor". While folks like Elaine Wynn and Punam Mathur may be genuinely concerned about our schools, the fact of the matter is that they were never elected by us, they're not accountable to us, and it's ridiculous for Sandoval to try to make us forfeit our power to let our voices be heard on public education, just so he can feel more "in charge" and place his "friends" on the state board.

Please take a look at Chris' list of legislators to contact and let them know AB 548 does nothing to help public education, and that we don't want them to play power politics with our schools.

Why Young People Don't Matter... & How to Change That

So often, it seems like we young folk get the short end of the stick. Republicans in Congress keep threatening to eliminate Social Security and Medicare before we even come close to retirement. Brian Sandoval wants to eliminate many of our schools... LITERALLY!

Unfortunately, it's incredibly easy for young people to become the whipping boys and girls and get the raw deal. Here's what happens.

We don't vote. We don't call. We don't care. And in turn, our state and federal legislators don't care about us.

Get it?

It's easy to complain about how "rigged" the system is. But if we're not participating, then we're part of the problem.

Thankfully, the good people of Nevada Student Alliance and Nevada Students Unite Here are trying to change this. Yesterday, I canvassed with them in Silverado Ranch and asked locals there for their thoughts on the insani-TEA of destroying Nevada's future by way of education budget cuts.











While I didn't have as much luck yesterday (almost all my households were not home), others had some good success. They were finding rank-and-file Republicans who didn't want their kids' schools falling apart any more, local teachers enraged over being forced to "sacrifice" any more while corporate fat cats still get their tax breaks, and even a local celebrity who was ready to "knock some sense" into our legislators when he heard about the budget! Oh, and even in my wandering through the stucco and red tile wilderness, I found a concerned parent and a Republican guy who didn't throw me off his lawn.

In the end, everyone achieved collection of another 78 petition signatures being added to the man thousands already on record asking one of our Senators, Michael Roberson (R-Where Is He?), to reconsider his opposition to making the "fully loaded" pay their fair share so all our schools can stay open. Seriously, this is what change looks like... At least in the beginning.

We're so outraged when we're reminded of the raw deal we get when our education is threatened (yet again), but multinational mining conglomerates are regularly let off the hook. Is it unfair? Yes. Is it horrifying? Absolutely. Is it unstoppable? Nope, and it's time we realize that.

There are a whole lot of young folks in this state, but we "don't matter" because not enough of us participate. Yet when we do start to participate, we do matter. Suddenly, our voices are heard... And change happens.

So if you don't like what's happening, get involved. Register to vote. Join a canvass. Get on the phone. Contact your legislators. Seriously, this is how you start to matter up there.

Endure THIS! Everything They "Know" Is Wrong.

Well, isn't this lovely? Nevada's biggest beneficiaries of government largesse now bite the hands that built them and tell us to "endure the pain".

“You can’t argue gloom and doom. People don’t want to hear it right now, not when hundreds of thousands remain out of work or have had their hours cut.” [...]

In a March 8 letter to faculty and students at UNLV’s Boyd Law School, Smatresk wrote of likely tuition increases to counter lost revenue from budget cutting: “These additional increases will undermine the law school’s successful formula and render it a mediocre institution.”

He’s also been quoted as saying “we’ve already squeezed the blood from the stone. This is horrific to talk about people like this.”

The Strip [casino executive] counseled Smatresk that UNLV should endure the pain during the current legislative session, then he should reach out for a communitywide commitment to rebuild the university during upcoming sessions.

“Neal heard the message, and he’s seemed to have softened his approach,” the second executive said.

Corporate executives and education reform advocates want to hear talk of academic, spending and administrative reform by the university and School District. They do not want the debate to be purely focused on the spending side of the equation.

"Endure the pain"? Really? I don't remember MGM Resorts doing that when they came close to bankruptcy and losing CityCenter. Nope, instead they reached out to Harry Reid and had him call the banks to secure the funding needed to save the project (and the company, and The Las Vegas Strip!).

"Endure the pain"? Seriously? I don't remember Caesars Entertainment doing that when they came close to going bankrupt as all their debts were catching up to them. Nope, instead they reached out to Harry Reid and had him insert a provision in The Recovery Act so they can restructure their debt and stay afloat (which also helped keep The Strip afloat!).

"Endure the pain"? The gaming industry didn't have to do too much of that, and they've always been able to snatch a life preserver when needed. But when our state is failing, our schools are about to be obliterated, and our chance at basic survival is iffy at the moment, we're told to just suck it up and "endure the pain"?

No more. We the people have endured enough.

Why is it that casino execs and their Wall Street corporate fat cat buddies can roll in the bailout money provided by our tax dollars, but then whey whine and scream and throw a fit and demand "reform" when we're trying to stay in school, get better jobs, and make better lives? We the people are being responsible, yet we have to "endure the pain" while they get help whenever they need/want it?

UNLV tuition has nearly doubled in the last 3 years, and it's slated to be raised even higher if "benevolent butcher" Sandoval's budget is adopted. In the mean time, 6 academic departments have been eliminated and more are slated to be axed if Sandoval gets his way. Many teachers and staff have already been laid off, and 350 more may be out of work if Brian's brutal budget is passed. Sorry, anonymous casino executive, but we have already "endured the pain" and we shouldn't be forced to endure our own community's death because a few big mining conglomerates and other
multinational corporations refuse to pay their fair share.

If that anonymous gaming exec were serious about making those "endure the pain" who have been sheltered for far too long, he would call his Carson City lobbyists and at least tell them not to whip against AB 336 and AB 428, simple bills that would respectively enact a long needed net-profits tax on large corporations (AB 336) and reduce the most heinous mining tax deductions (AB 428) that allow the mining industry to get away with getting something for nothing.

Elliott Parker, esteemed economist at UNR, had to go to Nevada Appeal last week to appeal to Governor Sandoval to remember common sense.

[... W]e are deciding which faculty to fire, and which students will lose their degree programs. These are productive faculty who have worked hard, to help us improve this university. We have been cutting budgets by firing many good people over the past four years. This is really getting old, and it is completely reversing years of effort to make Nevadans proud of their oldest university.

My university alone has already lost 350 positions, mostly very educated people who then left the state — and Nevada already has too few of those. Now we have 150 more jobs on the block, and many more to come since we are less than halfway to your target. We aren't that big of a university, and these cuts are starting to cripple us. Your proposals will do incredible damage.

You are mistaken when you say these cuts are best for the state's economy. As an economist who looks at the data, I know these cuts are bad for the economy. Cutting state expenditures during a recession, especially educational expenditures, makes the economy worse, not better.

We know that education matters for the future of the state, both K-12 and higher education. Without our monopoly on gambling, Nevada doesn't have many resources, but nowadays the most productive resource is in the knowledge and skills of the workforce. It will take many years to undo the damage we are doing now.

This is a death spiral. If we gut higher education, productive people and productive investment will flow out of the state, not in.

We know this is not a temporary problem. Gaming is a much smaller share of our economy than it used to be, even though our state budget still largely depends on it. We have known for years that we need a tax system that better reflects our economy, a tax system that can apply low rates to a much, much broader base. Yet we keep procrastinating on the solution.

The budget problem is not too big to solve. While the state's budget gap is a large fraction of the general fund, it is only 1 percent of our state economy. For the average resident, it is roughly the cost of eating out once a month.

And he's correct. We can't endure any more of this pain. It's killing us, and it's time to start letting our state and our people heal.

Ultimately, a diversified economy will help the gaming industry in that it will lessen their tax burden here in Nevada. I guess that's why this strange rant surprised me. I know MGM and Caesars and other Nevada gaming companies haven't had the easiest of times, but we're not asking anything unreasonable from them. In fact, none of the bills mentioned above even affect them!

So instead of forcing working class Nevadans to endure any more lethal "pain", why not let our state heal, make us less dependent upon the casinos, and invest in our schools that we so badly need to produce the kind of educated workforce that will make our economy healthier in the long run?

Maybe We Shouldn't Wait for Superman?

Today, Coolican has an interesting piece in today's Sun about the public school "documentary", Waiting for Superman. I've seen it as well. It can be compelling. Even a Republican legislator in Carson City that I talked with this week was singing its praises.

But hold on, what is this movie really about? And what is this movie's agenda? Last October, The Nation took a hard look at the real message behind Waiting for Superman.

Here's what you see in Waiting for Superman, the new documentary that celebrates the charter school movement while blaming teachers unions for much of what ails American education: working- and middle-class parents desperate to get their charming, healthy, well-behaved children into successful public charter schools.

Here's what you don't see: the four out of five charters that are no better, on average, than traditional neighborhood public schools (and are sometimes much worse); charter school teachers, like those at the Green Dot schools in Los Angeles, who are unionized and like it that way; and noncharter neighborhood public schools, like PS 83 in East Harlem and the George Hall Elementary School in Mobile, Alabama, that are nationally recognized for successfully educating poor children.

You don't see teen moms, households without an adult English speaker or headed by a drug addict, or any of the millions of children who never have a chance to enter a charter school lottery (or get help with their homework or a nice breakfast) because adults simply aren't engaged in their education. These children, of course, are often the ones who are most difficult to educate, and the ones neighborhood public schools can't turn away.

You also don't learn that in the Finnish education system, much cited in the film as the best in the world, teachers are—gasp!—unionized and granted tenure, and families benefit from a cradle-to-grave social welfare system that includes universal daycare, preschool and healthcare, all of which are proven to help children achieve better results at school.

In other words, Waiting for Superman is a moving but vastly oversimplified brief on American educational inequality. Nevertheless, it has been greeted by rapturous reviews.

So why is this film being treated as some sort of holy revelation on American public education? What's the motivation behind the push to implement all the "reforms" called on by this film? And what would happen if public education were to be "reformed" the way the backers of this film want?

Diane Ravitch, a nationally renown public education expert, examined the reality behind the claims of Davis Guggenheim, the man behind Waiting for Superman.

Guggenheim didn’t bother to take a close look at the heroes of his documentary. Geoffrey Canada is justly celebrated for the creation of the Harlem Children’s Zone, which not only runs two charter schools but surrounds children and their families with a broad array of social and medical services. Canada has a board of wealthy philanthropists and a very successful fund-raising apparatus. With assets of more than $200 million, his organization has no shortage of funds. Canada himself is currently paid $400,000 annually. For Guggenheim to praise Canada while also claiming that public schools don’t need any more money is bizarre. Canada’s charter schools get better results than nearby public schools serving impoverished students. If all inner-city schools had the same resources as his, they might get the same good results.

But contrary to the myth that Guggenheim propounds about “amazing results,” even Geoffrey Canada’s schools have many students who are not proficient. On the 2010 state tests, 60 percent of the fourth-grade students in one of his charter schools were not proficient in reading, nor were 50 percent in the other. It should be noted—and Guggenheim didn’t note it—that Canada kicked out his entire first class of middle school students when they didn’t get good enough test scores to satisfy his board of trustees. This sad event was documented by Paul Tough in his laudatory account of Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone, Whatever It Takes (2009). Contrary to Guggenheim’s mythology, even the best-funded charters, with the finest services, can’t completely negate the effects of poverty.

Guggenheim ignored other clues that might have gotten in the way of a good story. While blasting the teachers’ unions, he points to Finland as a nation whose educational system the US should emulate, not bothering to explain that it has a completely unionized teaching force. His documentary showers praise on testing and accountability, yet he does not acknowledge that Finland seldom tests its students. Any Finnish educator will say that Finland improved its public education system not by privatizing its schools or constantly testing its students, but by investing in the preparation, support, and retention of excellent teachers. It achieved its present eminence not by systematically firing 5–10 percent of its teachers, but by patiently building for the future. Finland has a national curriculum, which is not restricted to the basic skills of reading and math, but includes the arts, sciences, history, foreign languages, and other subjects that are essential to a good, rounded education. Finland also strengthened its social welfare programs for children and families. Guggenheim simply ignores the realities of the Finnish system.

There you have it. It's easy for folks like Davis Guggenheim, Michelle Rhee, and Brian Sandoval to just claim public schools don't need any more money because charter and private schools just magically fart out rainbows and unicorns and pots of gold and college graduates, too... But all too often, they neglect to acknowledge that these charter and private schools receive far more money than public schools, and that they're not subject to the same types of brutal budget cuts that public schools in Nevada and throughout the nation have had to endure in recent years.

But wait, there's more. Ravitch also pulled back the veil to reveal the real motivation behind the "reform movement" championed in films like Waiting for Superman.

Waiting for “Superman” is the most important public-relations coup that the critics of public education have made so far. Their power is not to be underestimated. For years, right-wing critics demanded vouchers and got nowhere. Now, many of them are watching in amazement as their ineffectual attacks on “government schools” and their advocacy of privately managed schools with public funding have become the received wisdom among liberal elites. Despite their uneven record, charter schools have the enthusiastic endorsement of the Obama administration, the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, and the Dell Foundation. In recent months, The New York Times has published three stories about how charter schools have become the favorite cause of hedge fund executives. According to the Times, when Andrew Cuomo wanted to tap into Wall Street money for his gubernatorial campaign, he had to meet with the executive director of Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), a pro-charter group. [...]

There is a clash of ideas occurring in education right now between those who believe that public education is not only a fundamental right but a vital public service, akin to the public provision of police, fire protection, parks, and public libraries, and those who believe that the private sector is always superior to the public sector. Waiting for “Superman” is a powerful weapon on behalf of those championing the “free market” and privatization. It raises important questions, but all of the answers it offers require a transfer of public funds to the private sector. The stock market crash of 2008 should suffice to remind us that the managers of the private sector do not have a monopoly on success.

Public education is one of the cornerstones of American democracy. The public schools must accept everyone who appears at their doors, no matter their race, language, economic status, or disability. Like the huddled masses who arrived from Europe in years gone by, immigrants from across the world today turn to the public schools to learn what they need to know to become part of this society. The schools should be far better than they are now, but privatizing them is no solution.

In the final moments of Waiting for “Superman,” the children and their parents assemble in auditoriums in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Silicon Valley, waiting nervously to see if they will win the lottery. As the camera pans the room, you see tears rolling down the cheeks of children and adults alike, all their hopes focused on a listing of numbers or names. Many people react to the scene with their own tears, sad for the children who lose. I had a different reaction. First, I thought to myself that the charter operators were cynically using children as political pawns in their own campaign to promote their cause. (Gail Collins in The New York Times had a similar reaction and wondered why they couldn’t just send the families a letter in the mail instead of subjecting them to public rejection.) Second, I felt an immense sense of gratitude to the much-maligned American public education system, where no one has to win a lottery to gain admission.

So there you have it. Yet again, corporate greed is out to privatize and profit off another American essential. This time, they're coveting our schools. And in order to get their hands on our money (since they're seeking our tax dollars for charter schools and private school vouchers), they're willing to sell us the vilest lies about the public servants teaching our kids and confuse us with misleading "data" to assign blame so they can go about their education takeover.

So why am I talking about this today? Maybe because Brian Sandoval and some Republican legislators are worshiping Michelle Rhee while ignoring what really happened to DC schools under her watch? Maybe because it's easy for certain legislators to point to this movie to explain away education budget cuts instead of admitting that slashing public school budgets will destroy our economy and is the ultimate example of "being penny wise and pound foolish"? Maybe because we now have to fight the misinformation campaign fueled by this film in order to save our schools and save our state?

Don't get me wrong. Many education reforms are needed, and even many teachers in the unions recognize this. However, nothing good can come out of demonizing teachers, busting the unions, and destroying the promise of education for all by way of privatizing schools. And anyone who tries to convince us of any of that crap is selling us nothing but make believe and visions of "Superman".

The People vs. "Sando-Gibbons"

Last night, Brian Sandoval went on "Face to Face" and told Jon Ralston he still refuses to look at anything other than "No New Taxes"...

But legislators may now be realizing that reality just hit their doorstep yesterday, and we won't be going anywhere any time soon.

“We need to provide political cover to lawmakers,” said Kyle George, chairman of the Nevada Student Alliance. “We have to tell them that we are the people who got them elected.”

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, said the sheer number of people in Carson City can’t be discounted. They and their families are voters.

“Lawmakers will ignore their constituents who say we have to preserve education at their own peril,” he said. “This budget will not pass gutting education the way it does.”

Still, it seems like the moneyed corporate interests that have dominated Carson City dealmaking for decades won't go down without a fight.

Students had entered the “Carson City bubble,” a place where a few hundred people in suits — lawmakers, lobbyists, staff and media — influence the outcome, and the final budget is crafted behind closed doors by about a dozen lawmakers and high-powered lobbyists.

Influence is measured in $10,000 campaign contribution checks, walkers you can mobilize at election time or political scalps collected of those who made you unhappy.

Lobbyists — notorious cynics, and the ones who don’t want to part with their power — say it’s naive to think citizens will affect the outcome. Young people don’t vote. The same legislative leadership and politically powerful interest groups will go behind closed doors and make the decisions based on personal values or crass political calculations.

Privately, many legislators, with political futures to worry about, roll their eyes at long lines of average citizens wanting to testify to committees.

To have a lasting effect, both cynics and optimists say, Monday’s rally has to be part of a bigger effort.

“What they’re trying to do doesn’t end with this demonstration,” said Guy Rocha, a state historian and supporter of the rally against cuts. “This doesn’t get them their outcome ... To have clout isn’t to be noisy — it’s to make people uncomfortable about their political future.” [...]

“We’ve never tried a mass mobilization of students in Nevada before,” said Erin Neff, executive director of Progress Now Nevada, a liberal group that helped organize the rally. “If they’re going to ignore them, they’re going to have to do it to their faces.”

Neff, a former journalist who covered the Legislature, knows that chanting and shouting aren’t enough. She said students will target lawmakers who are potential swing votes, such as Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas — who has expressed doubts about a tax increase — and perceived Republican moderates such as Sen. Michael Roberson of Las Vegas.

As Al Gore would say, it really is a case of the people versus the powerful.



The people spoke yesterday, but Sandoval refuses to listen. Instead, he seems to be enjoying the same "la-la land" of teabagger delusions of grandeur that Jim Gibbons often stayed in. He just doesn't get it.

However, he doesn't have to get his way. The facts simply don't support his otherworldly claims. Legislators really have to choose whether to jump off the crazy cliff with Sandoval or look at new and more stable revenue sources to make our state functional again. Legislators must listen to us... Or face the consequences of letting the failed ideology of "Sando-Gibbons" bankrupt our state.

Reality Bites... Will Brian Sandoval Feel It?

(H/T RGJ for video)



Apparently, today's rally in Carson City was the largest in State Capitol history!



I know quite a few of the students who were there. I know they're struggling with full-time jobs, and sometimes family obligations as well. They're doing everything humanly possible to survive...

Including working on higher degrees. But under Sandoval's proposed budget, higher education would not just be decimated and blown to shreds, but whatever is left of it will be forced to become completely unaffordable to even more thousands of Nevadans. What does that mean? Instead of going to school to prepare for good jobs, more of us will be forced to fend for ourselves using whatever means possible.

Long story short, all these education cuts do in the longer term are strain our social services and prison budgets. Yes, you heard me right. Without good education, our workforce will never be attractive to companies that typically pay well. And without good jobs, our people will either continue needing "welfare" (unemployment, food stamps, Medicaid, etc.) and/or end up in prison.

Is this what Sandoval wants? Is this what our legislators want? Or do they need to ditch the silly political games and look at real solutions? We need to keep letting them know we demand real solutions that save our schools and save our future!

Our Schools, Our Future

This is what happens when our state is dangerously close to trashing its own future.

More than 1,000 university and community college students from across the state rallied in front of the Nevada Capitol and the Legislature on Monday in protest of proposed cuts to higher education.

"If these cuts go through and the tuition rises, I won't be able to stay in school," said Becky Scott, a freshman at UNLV, who rode one of five busses overnight from Las Vegas.

Hundreds of students chanted "Come out Brian," in front of the Capitol, however, Gov. Brian Sandoval was not in his office Monday morning.

As we've talked about before, many thousands of students from throughout the state have begged Brian Sandoval and The Legislature to let them continue learning. Under Sandoval's proposed budget, entire departments are set to be eliminated from UNLV and UNR, UNLV will likely go bankrupt, and entire colleges, like Western Nevada College in Carson City and Nevada State College in Henderson, may be permanently closed. Now what would that say about our state planning ahead for a better economic future?

As I've repeatedly exclaimed here before, the ONLY way for Nevada to survive is for us to diversify our economy and bring in companies looking for an educated workforce. But as long as we continue to defund our schools, Nevada will be nothing other than a third world society slowly unraveling as casino conglomerates look elsewhere to profit off gambling going global.

This year's budget really is a life or death decision for Nevada. Will we decide on economic and social murder-suicide by way of destroying what little public infrastructure we have? Or will we choose life? Will we decide to build on that very public infrastructure that the vast majority of the private sector has told us is critical for them to do business here?

These aren't just students in Carson City today. This is the tipping point that may very well decide the life or death of Nevada. Do we want our state to live?

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?

The Revolution at Our Doorstep... Will Be Televised

Just today, another local business leader admitted the obvious.

What we do see more and more is that it’s not low taxes that bring companies to Nevada necessarily. I think that’s something everybody’s really agreeing on now, which is why the whole package is important of what makes this a good place for people to come and do business, and live and bring their families. [...]

One of the things it gets back to is what makes Las Vegas an attractive place to do business. Why do they want to come to Southern Nevada versus going to Arizona or another region? We have to give people a good reason to want to come.

That was Sallie Doebler, President of the group formerly known as the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. Her industry has been particularly hard hit. Even Doebler herself was affected, as her former Reno based company shut its Las Vegas office as construction demand dried up. She now runs her own consulting firm, and apparently now she's ready to say what so many of us had to learn the hard way.

Unfortunately, not everyone is as fortunate as Sallie Doebler. I saw that for myself last night, as The Nevada Legislature held a town hall on education and the state budget at Green Valley High School. There, a number of students, teachers, and concerned citizens begged legislators to realize what Sallie Doebler and others already have.





Are we really that much smarter than much of the bunch presently occupying Carson City? Do they not recognize reality? Are they totally tone deaf?

Funny enough, two freshman Republican legislators, State Senator Elizabeth Halseth (R-Las Vegas) and Assembly Member Scott Hammond (R-Las Vegas) seemed to prove just that.

Despite who was behind the tweet, Halseth or AFP Nevada, you have to wonder why they were so upset by the testimony they heard that they feel government must step in and prevent voters from speaking and having access to their elected officials.

Was it the 3rd grader with type 1 diabetes who didn't want his school nurse to be fired because he'd have no one to give him his insulin shot? The bus driver who faithfully performed her duties for Clark County School District for 30 years? [...] Or the mother of three who wanted her kids education to mean something when they graduate and go out into the world?

Funny enough, neither one was present, yet both Republican legislators took to Twitter to spread lies about unions "shutting out citizens". I also have to ask why they and their "Tea Party, Inc." patrons were so afraid of seeing so many Nevadans, including parents, local teachers, and students, speak the truth.

Are they now becoming afraid as more and more business folk and economists state the obvious fact that we'll never have a first rate economy with third world schools? Are they now afraid that more and more Nevadans are waking up and tasting the anthrax that's our failed state of "no taxes"? Whatever the case, perhaps the teabaggers are sensing the revolution at our doorstep... And they are scared.

Honestly, I'm still wondering if enough legislators really get it. However, I'm suddenly feeling something I haven't genuinely felt in some time.I think I have hope again.

If so many people can take the time to send this powerful message, can Carson City keep ignoring us? It's finally starting to look like the revolution will be televised, after all. Can they really tune all of us out?

And the Chorus Grows...

Are we listening?

Kevin Whitney of TechAmerica, an advocacy group that represents 1,200 high-tech companies across the country, said an hour-long discussion with state Legislative leaders and the governor’s office focused on issues the state faces in luring such companies to move to the state or expand existing businesses.

“Many of those issues centered around a lack of workforce development and skills acquisitions that our companies require to relocate or expand our operations, here in the state of Nevada,” Whitney said. “Oftentimes what you see is these companies come here to do a project and unfortunately have to import their workforce from other states.”

Capgemeni, a tech firm working on the Nevada Business Portal and with the state department of employment and training, found those challenges firsthand, said company executive Kevin Doyle.

“Frankly, in order to start our business here, we needed to bring folks in (from out of state),” he said. “We know that’s not sustainable long-term, but having technology skills is absolutely paramount to our success.”

So tech companies are now begging the powers that be in Carson City for a more educated workforce? But guess what? Brian Sandoval wants to slash programs at Nevada colleges that are doing this! I know, I know, it's the definition of insanity.

How often have you heard me rant about our overdependence on gaming, even as it's becoming increasingly clear that gaming isn't building here any more? But as long as we refuse to provide needed infrastructure, like good PreK-16 schools, new companies and industries will continue bypassing us for greener pastures.

"Jobs, jobs, jobs" has been the mantra of the 2011 Legislative session that began Feb. 7. And while Democratic leaders have their differences with the new Republican governor over the budget, both sides of the aisle have stayed on message that working together and creating jobs is priority No. 1 this session.

Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, said the discussion with executives of TechAmerica focused on "what would it take for them to come to Nevada."

In answer to that question, Paul Miner, government affairs manager for General Electric Co., said "first and foremost what you're seeing around this table." He called the bipartisan front "unprecedented."

But Miner also said, "you need a well-educated work force to get to work."

Kevin Doyle, with Paris-based Capgemini, agreed, especially when it comes to specific skills required in the technology fields.

His consulting and technology firm recently located in Nevada, he said, and had to import staff because it could not find trained workers.

Sandoval said he was encouraged by the executives' comments.

"This is one of the reasons I am optimistic of the future of Nevada," he told reporters, who were briefly invited to ask questions after the closed discussions concluded.

Sandoval has proposed deep cuts to both K-12 and Nevada's colleges and universities. Democrats counter the cuts would counterproductive to a state trying to claw its way out of the Great Recession.

The writing is on the wall. Who is reading it? Who is heeding the warning? Who is ready to call out the "no tax" insanity for what it is and call on Nevada to start anew?

We have companies coming into our state, taking our natural resources for their profit, and paying next to nothing in taxes. What is wrong with this picture?

We have the cheapest state government in the country and one of the lowest tax rates anywhere, yet businesses are NOT flocking here in droves. What is wrong with this picture?

Business leaders are now saying they want and need a more highly educated workforce to succeed, but Governor Sandoval stands by his budget to cut to death the very economic lifeline we need now more than ever before. What is wrong with this picture?

And what will we do to make it right?

Yet Again, I Told You So.

Remember when I said this last Monday?

The real estate speculation and debt fueled "boom times" of the last decade are long gone, so we need to stop acting like we can return to those "good old days".

Numerous ordinary Nevadans have already seen the writing on the wall. "Easy" construction jobs are no longer all that easy to get, and "plentiful" casino jobs are no longer all that plentiful, especially now that the casinos are increasingly investing in foreign markets and less so in new Nevada properties. That's why more and more of them are doing what Tera and John are doing. They're going back to school, working on advanced degrees, and doing what they need to do to access the jobs of the future.

So why can't Brian Sandoval see this? I'm sure he didn't hear any stories like this one at either of his inaugural balls last weekend, so why couldn't he take the time to stop at the town hall at Grant Sawyer on Saturday to listen?

More and more Nevadans realize that the only real way to "let Nevada be Nevada again" is for Nevada not to repeat the mistakes made in the past. The days of "easy money" in gaming and "growth" are behind us. We now have to adapt our economy for the new reality. What are we doing to adapt?

In the last two days, I caught two very troubling Sun articles that we should take as warning signs. The first is from yesterday and notes the "brain drain" that's only worsened since the start of "The Great Recession".

Nevada, like many states and countries, has always suffered from a flight of human capital, or “brain drain,” as it’s often called. Many of our best and brightest take a pass on UNR and UNLV, and once they matriculate at elite universities elsewhere, they wind up in regions that are financial and technological centers and offer more varied cultural and recreational lives.

This brain drain problem was mitigated during the boom, as tens of thousands of college-degreed Americans came to Nevada for opportunity. The valley was flush with architects, construction management experts, marketers, attorneys, accountants and other professionals. In fact, today there are roughly 191,000 working-age adults in the valley with bachelor’s degrees who weren’t born in Nevada, according to an analysis of census data by Alan Berube of the Brookings Institution.

Although we enjoyed a migration surge of the educated, we also had a massive influx of less educated service and construction workers, and we were left with a workforce that was less educated than most large urban areas — 21 percent of Clark County residents had bachelor’s degrees as of 2009, compared with the national average of 27 percent, according to census data compiled by the Chronicle of Higher Education. By contrast, 28 percent of residents of Maricopa County, where Phoenix sits, have degrees; in Salt Lake County, it’s 29 percent.

This matters because economic development experts agree that Nevada faces a difficult path to recovery. We have limited natural resources, a struggling construction economy that won’t recover anytime soon and over-reliance on a tourism industry that is itself dependent on free-spending outsiders in an age of parsimony.

In short, we need our tourism industry to expand and innovate, or we need new industry. Both options would seem to require college-educated workers whom we don’t currently possess in enough numbers.

As we've talked about before, those areas that have more highly educated workforces are the places that recover more quickly. That's why places like Greater Salt Lake City and the San Francisco Bay Area are recovering more quickly than our humble burg that hasn't valued education.

Nope, instead we keep hearing more stories like Bud Meyers'. He and other Las Vegas area "99ers" have exhausted their unemployment benefits, but don't know what to do next because all they know is casino and/or construction, and neither industry is apt to hire them back.

Meyers’ story isn’t just about one man’s disheartening job search. It’s also about a class of workers approaching obsolescence in a town much changed from the days when they first came seeking opportunity.

Older casino workers such as Meyers feel passed over in a job market that favors applicants’ appearance and personality over work history or local connections, say job placement and training experts. Las Vegas always has been driven by eye candy. That was a commonly heard complaint even before the recession. Yet age discrimination actions rarely advance far. Employees are mainly concerned about keeping their jobs rather than causing a stir.

In two years of unemployment, Meyers drained his life savings of $40,000. But the experience has taken more than a financial toll on Meyers, who picks at his once-manicured nails and chain smokes while he speaks.

His graying hair and pale skin reveal a different man from the bartender who appears in personal photos with a tanned, chiseled face and gleaming black hair. The employed Meyers had coifed hair and a wide, mischievous grin. The jobless Meyers has ragged locks he cuts himself and insomnia, reflected in the bags under his eyes and an expression of defeat.

Though he subsists on just one meal a day to save money, the once-trim body that rushed about behind a bar, slinging drinks for tourists, has grown thick.

Many of the long-term unemployed like Meyers are showing up at agencies like the state-run JobConnect.

Ben Daseler, who supervises the state’s largest JobConnect office in central Las Vegas, said older hospitality workers are having an especially tough time finding work. Like other job seekers, he said, they are told to “be flexible and learn new skills.” [...]

“I couldn’t believe that someone with my experience couldn’t even get a job as a busboy,” Meyers said.

Still, he spent months applying online for similar job openings. But many casino companies prevent job seekers from applying for more than one job at once, requiring applicants to wait several weeks before they can reapply for something else. He also walked into bars and casinos, talking with bartenders, managers and human resources representatives to get a foot in the door. You have to apply like everyone else, they said.

What happened over three years ago wasn't just a typical "cyclical downturn" that one studies in macroeconomics. No, this was more. Our entire US economy was revealed to be frighteningly unstable, and it came perilously close to total collapse.

And more so than perhaps anywhere else in the nation, Nevada's economy was "built" around the very worst aspects of the postmodern American economy. How often did we hear that "growth begets growth"? How often were new home developments hastily approved just because "if we build them, they will come"? How often were we told not to worry about Americans mortgaging pretty much everything in sight to pay for "the high life", just because "real estate is a valuable commodity, it always goes up"?

As I've been saying on this blog for well over a year, Nevada's economy was built on financial quicksand. It was only a matter of time for many "homeowners'" over-leveraged "assets" to catch up with them, and for companies accustomed to "easy money" to see it dry up as fast as it appeared, and for our entire way of existence to be revealed as nothing more than a glamorized ponzi scheme.

We're only deluding ourselves if we really think all the "easy money" in casinos and construction will suddenly reappear as fast as it disappeared. It's just not realistic.

But you know what is? Making sure we don't repeat the same mistakes of the past. Why don't we get more of these 99ers back to school so they can learn new skills and be able to obtain jobs that can survive the new economy? Why don't we encourage more of our high schoolers to stay in school, go to college, and make something out of their lives? And why don't we build the kind of lasting infrastructure that will make more educated workers (and the companies looking to hire them) want to move here?

Again, we need to adapt. We need to change. We can't afford to follow the same path to failure (yet again). Nevada doesn't have to be a failed state. What will we do to change it?

Our Schools, Our Future

You've heard me talk about it for ages. So this morning, I'll let you read about our legislators actually seeing it for themselves.

The lawmakers got an ear and an eye full as they were quick-marched, among other classes, through a risk-management class, an advanced-placement government class, and an elementary school mathematics class where second-graders sang about “My Hero, the Zero.”

It was also an opportunity for School District officials to lobby a captive audience of legislators. Lauren Kohut-Rost, deputy superintendent of instruction, asked the assemblymen on the bus, “What is $189 million?”

When no one knew, she answered her own question: “That’s the dollar amount the Class of 2010 at Clark High School won in scholarships last year.”

There are some amazing kids doing amazing things at our schools... But that may change, and not for the better, if school budgets are further slashed to death.

Hey, don't just take my word for it... Desert Beacon has the facts and figures to back it up.

We get what we pay for. Do we want a smarter workforce or fuller prisons? We need to rethink our priorities.

If politics were principle based, we could get a lot more done. Since we all agree that our efforts would be better spent teaching a man to fish than just handing him one, perhaps we should agree to keep our education system accessible and affordable so all people can learn to fish. [...]

While our tax environment in Nevada is one of the best in the nation for businesses, our overall business environment is horrible because of our poorly funded education system. Ikea and other businesses will continue to pass up coming here if we refuse to change.

The very conservative neighbor state of Arizona has more taxes and spends more on education than we do because they see business opportunity over ideological stubbornness. If we truly want to be business friendly, we need to provide services in this state that attract business. Education is number one on that list. To do this, conservatives need to write their legislators and tell them that education is too important to cut.

Will we?

WTF??!! I'm Right Again?

This week, we've had some great news on the economic front. Las Vegas October 2010 visitation numbers rose 5.7% over October 2009, and Nevada casino winnings rose a whopping 11% in October 2010 over October 2009. So are we really there yet? Are we recovering?

Perhaps so, but don't expect everything to come up roses just yet.

Gaming industry leaders are confident visitors will return in greater numbers in 2011, benefitting hotels, restaurants and resort amenities, but they’re less confident about whether their casinos will see a similar increase.

“I feel good about the pricing environment and rates in ’11,” said Jonathan Halkyard, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Caesars Entertainment. “But it won’t even be close to what we had in 2007.” [...]

“It’s a little more difficult to predict what will happen with gaming, but it’s not looking great right now,” Halkyard said.

The reason is that most consumers have seen their net worth or those of close friends and family members plummet, he said. The downturn in gaming revenue correlates more with consumer net worth and what has happened to the housing market than today’s unemployment rate, he said.

“We’re going into ’11 cautiously, but as far as gaming is concerned, I think we’re in for more tough sledding,” he said.

Again, The Great Recession has changed many consumers' spending habits. These people used to be able to visit Las Vegas perhaps three or four times a year, but now they're lucky if they've been able to come any time since 2008.

Come on, let's face it. Feeding the family, trying to avoid foreclosure, and saving some cash just in case that dreaded pink slip arrives may be far more important priorities for most Americans than fitting in another Las Vegas or Reno/Tahoe vacation. That's just the awful truth of our "new (economic) reality".

So what can we do? Well, haven't we talked about this before? Seriously.

And guess who agrees with me now?

“Touting ourselves as a low tax state as the only reason people want to come here has proved to be a failure,” said John Restrepo, principal of Restrepo Consulting Group and a member of the study group. “If low taxes were all we needed, and we have been touting that, we wouldn’t have a 15 percent unemployment rate.”

The group’s report, “Nevada: 50th in the Nation for Education,” emanated from a round-table discussion among representatives of banking, architecture, law enforcement, education, real estate and government.

They met in August under the sponsorship of UNLV’s Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies and have published their findings. Dominant among them: Nevada won’t diversify its economy and prevent another deep recession unless education is valued in the community and more money is invested in public schools and colleges.

People and businesses leave Nevada or never move here because the educational system fails to meet their needs. The region is particularly off-putting to innovative, cutting-edge employers who seek excellent schools, the report said.

“We can no longer shortchange the state’s public schools, colleges and universities because of a lack of financial, political, social and economic will,” the report said. “To do so is shortsighted and will simply find us falling further behind Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah and other states in the push to lure the innovative entrepreneurs, investors and workers of the coming decades. To do so will relegate Nevadans to continued cycles of boom and bust that are heavily dependent upon the uncertain fortunes of the gaming, construction and government-employment sectors.” [Emphasis mine.]

Get it now? We have to. We have no other choice at this point.