Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Let’s agree to help kids

OUR KIDS CAN'T READ.

Nevada is the kind of state that most of the other 49 hold up as an example of almost all that is done right in this world to encourage the growth of business, the expansion of personal freedom and the creativity of modern-day visionaries. In short, at least on the surface, we are what every other state wants and what most other Americans dream of being when they grow up. We have spawned the all-American city -- Las Vegas -- and we are set to lead our sister states toward a bright and promising future.

Just one problem, though. Our kids can't read.

That means that the future for our state is not quite as bright as those on the outside looking in think it is. That means that all that has been glittering in the entertainment mecca of the world isn't golden but, rather, a perception fed by the kind of gold only fools try to mine. And that means that one day when we least expect it to happen, this house of cards upon which 1.5 million people have built their dreams will cave in upon us and we won't understand what happened.

Tomorrow, Nevadans will send their elected representatives back into a special session of the Nevada Legislature to pass a tax increase that has been proposed by Gov. Kenny Guinn and that is needed to fund the next two years' budget for the fastest-growing state in the union. If the past is prologue, they will fail to do the job that the people of this state elected them to do -- for the third time in a month. And if that happens, well, who knows what comes next!

The great debate for the next special session is the budget for Nevada's public school system, which everyone says they favor but, so far, a minority of Republican legislators have been able to hijack on its way to Guinn's desk. Less than two handfuls of GOP assemblymen and senators have told Gov. Guinn and the rest of Nevada that majority rule works in any democracy other than here in Nevada.

What Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., proudly says is his legacy to this state has been nothing more than a successful tyrannization of the majority of Nevadans at the hands of a small minority band of reactionaries, ideologues and otherwise scared elected officials. They have been able and, unless Gov. Guinn caves in, will continue to be able to thwart the will of the majority of Nevadans to fund the budget of this state because in Nevada the minority rules.

There is and will continue to be all kinds of rhetoric explaining this or that position while protecting the "citizens' pocketbook," but the bottom line is that the kind -- forget the quality -- of government services that the people demand in Nevada will not be forthcoming because no one is willing to pay the bill!

The governor has put his political comrades-in-arms in sort of a box because they will have to vote for the tax increases he says he needs or else be known statewide as the people who put the knife into the back of public education. Forget, for the moment, that some of these legislators as well as their puppetmasters at the Review-Journal would love nothing more than to end the public part of education in this country. The fact remains that our schools are in dire need of the money it takes to run them. Either the GOP gives their man in the Governor's Mansion what he wants or they give the people in this state and their school-aged children what almost nobody wants --- a school system that does not and cannot work.

The great irony here is that the legislators are on their way back to Carson City to debate this public school budget amid the latest report card for school children around the country. Those in Nevada, our kids and our future, have received the equivalent of failing grades.

Now, we can argue all we want about whether or not the school districts in this state are using the money we give them in the best and most efficient way possible. And we can debate the merits of per pupil spending and why Nevada woefully underspends her sister states. We can even ponder why the Silver State and its elected representatives are so proud of the fact that our state ranks barely above Mississippi and Alabama and, in some cases, behind every state in the union when it comes to quality of life criteria for our students. And we can agree, I suppose, that last place is good enough although I will always remain in the minority on that vote.

But, what we can't argue about is that we have failed our kids because we have not provided them the opportunity that our parents provided to us -- a quality public education and an opportunity to grab that brass ring of success as adults. We have failed.

So the legislators can throw as much rhetoric against the walls of common sense that they think they can get away with, but they cannot escape the truth. Nevada schools are in deep financial trouble and it is getting worse by the day. It is the kind of trouble that compounds itself with every delay.

When the governor and the Legislature created the Task Force on Tax Policy it was designed to take the heat off of the political folks by letting well-intentioned citizens report a proper course of action free from political considerations. We did that and I still believe our plan -- while not perfect -- is the best Nevada can do given the consitutional prohibitions against responsible tax alternatives.

No one is arguing that there may be better ways to run our school systems, our state and local governments and, especially, the Department of Motor Vehicles. But, that doesn't mean that the business of this state should not go on while we fix that which is wrong. To do otherwise, to allow those who continue to yell "waste, fraud and abuse," to stop our growth in its tracks is irresponsible and cowardly.

So, here's a compromise that should work. If the Legislature will pass what Gov. Guinn has asked of it, then he should agree to appoint another Task Force of well-intentioned citizens to study the budget issues that have caused so much consternation. The report would be ready for the 2005 Legislature. This way, the teachers can get hired, the schools can open on time, the parks can get built, the needs of seniors can be met, and every other reasonable demand upon government can be dealt with -- at the same time that a responsible approach to government spending can be fashioned.

I am afraid that unless something like this can be agreed upon, or a surprise compromise is reached, that we are doomed to continue this silly game with stakes so monumental that description fails the test of adequacy.

Our children still cannot read. What about their parents?

Brian Greenspun

is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

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