Editorial: Shuttering college doesn’t make sense

Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2003 | 9:14 a.m.

Gov. Kenny Guinn, in recognition of the tough choices the state is facing, proposed in his budget to the Legislature that only $7.5 million be spent over the next two years on the Nevada State College in Henderson. Guinn's decision, to keep the school afloat with just enough money until better economic times come along again that would allow for more funding, is a reasonable one. But state Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, says the state should consider shutting down the fledgling college to help balance the budget.

One of the college's champions, Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, notes that it actually would cost the state money to close the college. Perkins says the contracts that the college has with professors still would have to be honored and the cost of educating the students wouldn't go away -- the students simply would transfer to other institutions. We also shouldn't forget the primary mission for Nevada State College: to educate and graduate nurses and teachers, two professions in incredibly short supply in this state.

Every year the Clark County School District struggles to find enough qualified teachers to meet the need caused by explosive growth. And Nevada chronically has had one of the worst nursing shortages in the nation. We shouldn't be so shortsighted that we continue to neglect steps that could improve our educational and health care systems. We're glad that the Legislature wasn't shortsighted back in 1957, when Maud Frazier Hall stood all alone in the desert on South Maryland Parkway. From that humble beginning came the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.