The highly educated people on the school board don’t have their thinking caps on straight.
When you raise the property taxes, only a few people contribute to the school system. When you raise the sales tax, everyone contributes to the school system.
It is much more fair to raise the sales tax, where everyone contributes and nobody freeloads on the system.
In a society where bartenders and fake boobs run rampart; who needs an education? It's a damn shame we have people in leadership roles who actually think like that.
People in Clark County are paying MORE THAN ENOUGH in sales tax. Another increase would hurt EVERYONE, including small businesses and the working poor. As for property taxes, we don't need an increase in those either. Property values are still in the toilet so how can an increase in property taxes stand the smell test?
I read people's comments in this forum to gauge what it is that people want from the school district. Most notable are as follows and the district's solutions: Poor graduation rates - make curriculum harder and make teacher work harder or else. Teacher efficacy: Fire at will. Parental indifference: ZILCH. Bloated administration: Hire more with 6-figure salaries. Fiscal mismanagement: Hire consultants to identify who else to fire from among the rank-and-file and continue current spending practices with not as much as a token accountability.
Although those who comment on this forum are few, I feel they represent the sentiments of many and I believe the school district should listen. Yet, initiatives implemented by the school district are so incongruous and inconsistent to the problems that it appears it simply ignores the public's outcry; without even as much as an explanation.
And now, the district wants more money from the public?
Gray -- your identical letter ran yesterday with 43 posts @ http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/feb...
How did you get on here again?? You were wrong there and you're still wrong here.
"Here's another bunch of ignorant <insert PC word here>: school uniforms. Bad theory. The idea that if kids wear uniforms to school it helps keep order. Don't these schools do enough damage making all these kids think alike? Now they're gonna make them look alike too? And it's not a new idea. I first saw it in news reels from the 1930s, but it was hard to understand 'cause the narration was in German!" -- the late, great George Carlin in "Kids and Parents"
nancy; i understand your frustration especially since some of these parents are as dumb as a bunch of rocks. lay off the governor, the state legislature, the police and firemen, all of city hall and the school administrators; leave the teachers alone!
Sorry Robert perhaps skipped Econ 101. Except for the homeless and those in temporary government housing everyone pays property taxes. Renters pay monthly rent and cover the property taxes paid by the landlord. Property taxes are also paid by business owners even when they rent their place of business. Property taxes cover more than education and if government were to do anything to adjust how taxes are collected then Nevada should bundle into property taxes the registration fees now being collected by the DMV. Whether or not you own a vehicle, or take a bus everyone benefits from transportation so everyone should contribute not just those who register a vehicle. This eliminates the registration cheats and would still be fair since the additional property tax level would, much like what vehicle owners do now, be scaled to the value of the housing.
Corrected typos - Sorry Robert perhaps you skipped Econ 101. Except for the homeless and those in temporary government housing everyone pays property taxes. Renters pay monthly rent and cover the property taxes paid by the landlord. Property taxes are also paid by business owners even when they rent their place of business. Property taxes cover more than education and if government were to do anything to adjust how taxes are collected then Nevada should bundle into property taxes the registration fees now being collected by the DMV. Whether or not you own a vehicle, or take a bus everyone benefits from transportation so everyone should contribute not just those who register a vehicle. This eliminates the registration cheats and would still be fair since the additional property tax levi would, much like what vehicle owners do now, be scaled to the value of the housing.
Property owners are still reeling from the effects of a slowly recovering economy, and simply cannot bear an increase in property taxes presently.
Although using the broad sales tax method is regressive by nature, it could be currently used in a temporary way, until this toxic economy improves and folks out there can afford a higher property tax bill. This would be a compromise for the time being, to fix what is necessary for the school district. NONE of such money should go to any salaries or benefits of school district employees as well, only towards maintenance of actual SCHOOL facilities where children are directly served!
Blessings and Peace,
Star
Education is funded LAST in the nation in this state - LAST. We are LAST of the LAST.
And where has this gotten us? Are we improving? Are we innovating? Are we researching? Are we diversifying? NOPE.
Not only are we LAST. But Clark County is LAST in the state. Even though Clark County pays 75% of the revenue in this state. The parasitic rurals take the funds. Their children receive more per pupil than any child in Clark County. So guess what Vegas - we do pay. And your money is going to children in Eureaka! Meanwhile, 50% of our high school children fail. They will NEVER have a high school diploma because we have a test in Nevada that is rated the third hardest in the nation.
Every study of our tail-spin economy has shown that we must invest in education in this state. EVERY STUDY!
Yep the conservative libertarians that have taken over the media voice in this state keep shouting about taxes. We pay nothing. We get nothing. We will continue to dive to deeper depths. Our schools will continue to fail. People will continue to blame teachers.
Guess what people - I teach people to read. I buy my own paper. I have no workbooks. I work. I never mismanaged one cent of tax payer money. But I will tell anyone who doesn't want to pay any more - you are dumb as a rock if you think this place is going to improve or diversify or expand if you aren't willing to invest in public schools and children.
Vegas money needs to stay in Vegas. And the community need to be willing to pay to educated kids.
Nancy I agree with your comments. From what I have seen we do not have a revenue problem we have a spending problem. We do not have our priorities straight when it comes to where we spend our money. We do not need to raise a tax to help fund schools we need a fiscally responsible administration to run the district.
The United States ranks 2nd in spending per school student in K-12. Utah has a lower cost per pupil and higher graduation rate than Nevada. I agree that the major problem is the grad rates among minorities but we never see a plan from the teachers on how to resolve this problem. Some teachers say it's out of the teacher's control while others state we need higher teacher pay and fewer students per class(Utah has a higher teacher to student ratio than Nevada as well). Putting more money into a general fund and hoping for a solution isn't selling well with Nevadans. Teachers give us a solution to the problem.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0...
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Our lack of importance attached to education has Bill Gates pleading before Congress to ease up on immigration of PhDs from other nations
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Gates knows what's happening in here and across the US
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If we don't wise up, well , its not too late yet, but we have to wise up soon and get it going from frist grade.
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Ola - Look at Obama ... a Harvard Law grad.
Our education system needs to reapportion it's existing money first.
Education here has too many admin and maintenance types and too many sweetheart school rehab contracts.
Fix those and you will find a lot of money for teachers and proper classroom support AND THEN increase funding.
@ first grade teacher...
"Yet the conservative libertarians that have taken over the media voice in this state keep shouting about taxes. We pay nothing. We get nothing."
Nice summation, Angie.
Freeman;
Again, you obfuscate...
and shuck, and jive...
"Why, those darn teachers will not even tell us what is wrong, and how to fix it!"
Certainly you've read the hundreds and hundreds of comments by teachers herein about how to improve education. The fact that there isn't one simple, cogent, etched-in-stone, unified 'solution to the problem' as you put it is indicative of the multitude of issues that need addressing vis-a-vis Nevader's edgeyoukayshun sistum, partikulairly heer in County Clark, and with teachers having moved here from school districts all over the world, I would certainly HOPE that there would be a diverse discussion on 'how to'.
By the way, UTAH is the PITS for funding too.
Right there with Nevada or worse.
http://www.sltrib.com/csp/cms/sites/sltr...
Gmag,
You lost my trust last year when we argued about teacher work hours and you stated working hours were much higher than the average for Nevada. If your facts are that off then I can't trust anything you write. Sorry, argue with someone who doesn't know that you give bogus facts.
But Utah's graduation rates are higher than Nevada and they spend less per pupil. Must be a mystery that is unsolvable by the teachers and CCSD. My my. Higher grad rates and less spent per pupil. The United States ranks 2nd in spending per school student in K-12. More money should solve the problem, right gmag???
Look folks the averaqe core family in Vegas is far more fractured than in Utah. Kids who move around a lot tend to have less familial support and more personal problems and deeply improper study and life habits that contribute to consistent poor performance. Their prior surrounding friends are far away and without strong parenting they can tend to seek out those who are failing at life already. Overburdened and overworked parents in new jobs or on rapidly changing or odd shifts and days off often cannot give their kids the support they need.
These facts (solution anyone?) make it hard to indict all teachers for the poor average performance here. Having seen multiple school teachers actually teaching in my lifetime I think they do a pretty good job with what they have. The average teacher is NOT lazy nor unkind and many put in 60 plus hours a week. Yes, I have seen it and been there with my former spouse and others when they did that schedule solely on their own. Working the good teachers to death is not the solution.
The major fixable problems are poor use of the out of classroom money for excessive admin staff, arcane personnel rules that hamstring progressive discipline/performance enhancements, meaningless feel good PC requirements that have excessive admin staff chasing their tales for no valid educational result, excessive support positions going to pad bloated admin staff, poor use of maintenance money (two trucks and one guy to dig, one guy to fix the sprinkler and one to go talk to the school secretary and use the bathroom), building schools that are more a palace than a campus etc. etc.
Fed money ALWAYS comes with strings and routinely and poorly done metrics that are unhelpful to anyone except the drones in Washington who use these fanciful metrics to prove their dubious points.
The Dept of Ed is the main problem and the existing out of classroom money needs to be redirected.
teamster,
You mean Angie Sullivan, the Occupier in Las Vegas? She was an original organizer of that group. What happened to the Occupiers. Did attacking successful people not work out for them and Angie?
Mr. Freeman:
You are comparing apples and oranges. Las Vegas is no Utah, sir.
ASadTeacher,
How so Nancy?
I realize CCSD has a high drop-out rate among Hispanics. Should we focus on this issue or just give the school district more money and hope it solves the problem? Is there a solution you can offer up?
No Mr. Freeman. Look at families - the type of parents we have and the parents in Utah. Look at the community. It is no mystery.
Money is not the solution. CCSD has insurmountable challenges: Fragile families, indifferent community; fiscal mismanagement both by the district and the state/local government; misguided priorities, ad nauseam.
It does take a village to educate a child. Utah is united as a village. We are not.
The district is so wrapped up in raising money, it failed to look inward where to save money.
Between the superintendent and the school principals are layers upon layers of administrators/directors under which, are layers upon layers of assistant directors, managers, ombudsmen, administrative assistants, project facilitators, secretaries, and clerks. Then, we have consultants for every imaginable function which these layers are supposed to deliver! Compare that to one teacher and 40 students in each class with their raging hormones - 150 or more total each day!
It is really idiotic. They conjure up CYA things they want schools to do, devise forms and reports for schools to submit, and put in place accountability measures for failure to submit. You need proof? Go to the CCSD website and look at the directory listing.
I would like to see a system where the superintendent interacts directly with school principals and talk about children and how to help them learn. Anything in between those two levels is simply fluff.
The superintendent/board need to trust principals that they know how to deliver education. As it appears, they don't. They hire people to 'manage' them. If they can't trust the principals to deliver education in their respective schools, why are they appointed to be there? Let them do their jobs and relieve them of unnecessary burdens.
They will say, it's not that simple. Of course not! They made it so to justify their jobs. Anyone who wants to make a dent on this bureaucracy need only demand a truly independent audit of each department in the district.
Mr. Freeman, you want to add teeth to your claim?
Nancy,
I lived in Texas prior to here. My ex-girlfriend taught for several years and now is an ESL administrator in her school district. A majority of Hispanic parents DO emphasize to their children the importance of an education but there are some who don't. However, some Hispanic school children see their parents with jobs and they didn't finish school or their older friends ended up dropping out which causes the student to consider dropping out as well. The opposite occurs with most(not all) children of Asian decent. My ex-GF saw this as plain as day. The good news is that some make it through school and go onto college. A teacher can influence children to stay in school however, there are some teachers who just teach and do not reach out and motivate their students. Ultimately, it's not the teachers fault that a child drops out from school but we need to ensure we have teachers with the skills, recognition and motivation to identify those students who are at risk of dropping out so the school district, teacher and parent can develop a plan to try and steer the teenager in the right direction. Of course this job is made tougher when the parents are moving frequently.
That is what I have been harping about Mr. Freeman.
It IS the teacher. All that I have mentioned - community, parents, et al - the ones who influence a child's life and their seeming indifference - have now become givens. We CANNOT use them anymore as excuses for failure in education.
Yet, initiatives to reform education have nothing to do with HELPING the teacher become better at what they do, considering the GIVENS. All the initiatives implemented by the Legislature and the district are loaded guns aimed at teachers. A simple "what can we do to help you" would have been sufficient.
We are accused of being overpaid. We can now be fired at will. The evaluation process, which is supposed to help teacher identify deficiencies in their teaching and for principals to use as a mentoring tool, are now used as a tool to fire them. Our salaries and benefits are under siege. We are made scapegoats for failed policies, and the public wants to burn us at the stakes.
There are thousands of teachers who toil each day to do our jobs the best way we can notwithstanding the "Givens." Yes, there are REALLY bad teachers, but they are very few. However, the administrators are so overwhelmed with duties other than mentoring teachers, they simply make them dance the 'turkey trot' all over the district.
Teaching is VERY difficult with the kind of children we now have. It is a different time and a different culture - compared to decades ago or even Utah. TEACHERS NEED HELP and we are not getting it.