Editorial: Bennett’s gift great benefit to university

Wednesday, Nov. 3, 1999 | 9:23 a.m.

We tip our hat to Sahara hotel-casino owner William Bennett for his generous $5 million gift to build a new preschool on the UNLV campus. The donation announced Tuesday by UNLV President Carol Harter is a shot in the arm for early childhood education.

Bennett is no stranger to charitable giving on campus. Last year he donated $2.7 million for the William G. Bennett Professional Development Building, which is under construction adjacent to Paradise Elementary School. As Harter noted, the new buildings will give the university an early childhood education program that "we believe will become a national model." UNLV's current preschool serves about 200 children, but the new facilities are expected to double that enrollment.

Another benefit of the donations is that UNLV will be able to do a better job producing teachers of young children, particularly those up to age 5. Anything we can do to promote early childhood education ought to be encouraged because it will make life easier for our public school system. The investment we make in young children today makes it less likely we will have students who cannot read, write or balance a checkbook by the time they reach high school.

Bennett's donations also offer further proof that some casino owners along the Strip are willing to do more for the community than simply invest in their own properties. There is no greater investment than one benefitting young children. But that's not news to Bennett, an enormously successful businessman who built the Circus Circus empire. He is one of Las Vegas' truly great visionaries.