Letter: Students should take priority

Thursday, Jan. 4, 2001 | 9:50 a.m.

Now I'm left to wonder whether we hired an advocate for our children or an advocate for the Kmart, Target and Wal-Mart companies.

These are the corporations whose bottom-line profits would be most affected by the proposed funding formula. In nearly every other state, these major corporations pay a state tax, but not here in Nevada.

To those who question whether money makes any difference in educational outcome, look to the differing results of public schools which, for financial reasons, are forced to put an average of 32 students in each classroom; versus a school like the Meadows.

With about twice as much funding per student, the Meadows maintains a student-teacher ratio of 11-1.

If Clark County residents don't believe that the committed teachers of the Clark County School District could get better results with smaller classes, I challenge them to try it and see. We currently have some high school teachers handling over 200 students per day.

I say "handling" rather than "teaching" because any good administrator will tell you that those numbers allow merely for keeping up with paperwork -- not for quality educating.

LORI LIPMAN BROWN

Editor's note: The writer is a public school teacher and NSEA member.