Letter: Students suffer as better funding is repeatedly denied

Thursday, June 2, 2005 | 9:10 a.m.

Not one day goes by that someone in the Nevada Legislature or the news media doesn't beat the drum about more funding for education. Many Nevada citizens want to see more investment in education, especially kindergarten through 12. So when the hue and cry went up over the possibility of dramatically higher property taxes, where were all those champions?

Who was out there campaigning, not for a property tax limit of 3 percent but for additional property taxes to fund education? Where was the call for another 1 percent earmarked for education? Time after time a bill is introduced to provide additional educational funding via a state lottery. It never sees the light of day.

Gov. Kenny Guinn rants and raves about how the Millennium Scholarship fund is going broke and how taxpayers must save it. Why was this fund set aside for students who maintain at least a "B" average in high school? Had the money been directed at turning out many more "A" students via additional K through 12 funding, then those students would have been eligible for true academic scholarships. Unfortunately, many of these students probably wouldn't have attended UNLV or UNR. I think the education funding dog is all bark and no bite.

RICHARD RYCHTARIK