Where I Stand:

Our schools deserve parents’ support

Jim Rogers

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2008 | 2:02 a.m.

In August, Brian Greenspun turns over his Where I Stand column to guest writers. Today’s columnist is Jim Rogers, the owner of Sunbelt Communications and chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

What would you think if you came across a newspaper headline, “Teenagers found naked and starving: Parents refused to clothe and feed children,” that was accompanied by the following story?

“Billy Brown, 14, and his sister Janie Brown, 13, were found in their middle-class home, both naked and malnourished. A child of Billy’s age should be about 5 feet 4 inches tall and weigh approximately 112 pounds. The girl, Janie, should be approximately 5 feet 2 inches tall and weigh 100 pounds. Billy weighs 65 pounds and his sister weighs 45 pounds.

“When the parents were asked how the children got in this condition, they responded, ‘Although we had the money to both feed and clothe our children, we decided not to do so because all the companies that produce food and clothing are inefficiently run and have too many administrators. Besides, the cost of food and clothing is simply too high.’

“When questioned by reporters about the particulars of their allegations, the parents said they had no direct information about the so-called inefficiencies of the clothing and food companies, but simply had heard rumors to that effect. Therefore, they felt totally justified in starving and not clothing their children.”

So, you might be asking yourself, what does the hypothetical situation posed above have to do with education? Plenty. Let me explain.

There are approximately 400,000 students in K-12 in Nevada, 305,000 in Southern Nevada. There are approximately 110,000 students in the eight public higher education institutions.

With more than 500,000 students enrolled in school, one would conclude there are about 1 million parents who are directly involved in their children’s education. These 1 million parents certainly constitute the single most important and influential voting bloc in the state.

But rather than provide their children an education, too many in this bloc of 1 million voters have decided that based on rumor, not fact, Nevada’s system of education is inefficient, unproductive and, in general, a failure. Therefore, they have decided to prevent their children from obtaining an adequate education. In spite of the allegations of some members of the public that education is inefficient, refusing to adequately financially support the education system simply makes no sense.

I have been involved in the higher education system for more than four years. I deal on a daily basis with K-12. There is no question in my mind that the systems are not perfect. But I tell you in good faith that the systems are as efficient and as productive as any enterprise.

In fact, I am more than surprised that the Nevada education system continues to function when the public refuses to support it, not only with adequate funding, but also with the moral support all of us need to make us want to do a good job. If a business owner treated his employees the way the public treats its schoolteachers, he’d have no employees.

The legislators of this state respond to what they believe to be the will of the people. The legislators cannot be blamed for starving your children and preventing them from obtaining a real education if the public, which is totally involved in the education system, does not send a message to the Legislature that it no longer wishes to deny its children an education any more than it would deny its children food and clothing.

The Legislature needs parents to instruct the Legislature that it must respond to the educational needs of all children, K-16.

Discussion: 11 comments so far…

By vsestini

8/19/08 at 6:08 a.m.

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Does education count for anything in Nevada? I think not. There is far too much evidence that a quality education means nothing to most Nevadans. I am a 72 year old native born resident of Las Vegas and I have witnessed little that makes me believe that people really care about real education.

In this state and community it is all about money...money...money. Many believe taxes are wasted on our schools from K-12 to the University levels. As a nation we are turning out a generation of ignorant, illiterate citizens incapable of thinking. We are establishing the foundation for a future failure of our nation as we rely more and more on foreign countries for individuals capable of and working in a technical world.

Americans make heroes of entertainers, sports figures and movie stars while relegating scientists, engineers, physicians and others with collegiate educations as nerds.
America regards teachers as second class citizens by the pay standards and prestige accorded teachers.

Education counts for very little in Nevada. Governor Gibbons has demonstrated the true public attitude toward education in this state. Our state education system is now deteriorating to the level below many third world nations. Because of the state of education in America we produce very few noteworthy products. Our main national products are hamburgers and babies and we do a lousy job in both cases.
By azsk8fan

8/19/08 at 6:47 a.m.

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Amen to that - well said!
By KDR81

8/19/08 at 9:30 a.m.

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Mr. Rogers, this has to be the single dumbest column I've read in my life. There is no substance, not even a real life story which to draw some melodrama from. Come on.

The problem may not be that we fund public education too little, but that we arent trying reforms that actually lead to positive change.

If we continue to fund education more and more without results we are removing our ability to pay for other things we need.

LIKE FOOD AND CLOTHING!!!!
By hak2do

8/19/08 at 10:53 a.m.

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I'm a fiscal conservative who has lived here for nearly 20 years. I don't see taxes as a solution to our problems in this state, but I'm running out of ideas on how to fix this mess we're in.

As melodramatic as he is, Rogers is right. We don't care about education here and we keep strangling our schools with one hand and telling them to perform better with the other. Giving education unlimited funds probably won't work, but it sure as heck would work better than the current philosophy of death by a thousand cuts.

We need to finally decide whether we want to make Nevada a home for tourists or a home for its citizens. Our tourist-first philosophy is turning this town into a wasteland instead of a community.

As I heard him say at one of our club's events: "It's time to pay our community rent."
By seasinger

8/19/08 at 11:58 a.m.

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I'm not sure the analogy works because I don't contract with any companies to feed my child but I do contract with the Dept of Education to educate my child.

But I was onboard until you said my job is to convince the legislators to throw more money at the problem. What we really need to do is hold parents responsible for seeing that their children go to school, behave at school, do the homework and study. I will lay odds that if you have a child failing, they don't have parents who read with them and help with homework. Instead of money, parents need to invest some time.
By JohnF

8/19/08 at 12:57 p.m.

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Chancellor Rogers is 100% correct. The short-sighted, narrow-minded people of this state have decided that there is no utility in education. Who needs a college degree when you can make $100,000 parking cars?

Unfortunately ignorance breeds ignorance. Chancellor Rogers, I believe we are fighting a losing battle. The know-nothings - cheered on by the Review-Journal, Bob Beers, and others - are winning and each year that goes by without our addressing our problems with the educational system brings them closer to what they want: namely, a society built completely on social Darwinism where nobody has any obligations to anyone other than themselves. Further, they have already succeeded in building a society that does not understand how an educated populace benefits everyone. Therefore the very terms of the debate are skewed toward the willfully ignorant.

Those who toss around terms like "throw money at the problem" in this context don't understand that the problem is, to a large extent, a lack of money. You don't solve that problem by not spending more money. UNLV will be eliminating entire departments in the near future; that's scores of faculty. You can't save that kind of money by eliminating waste (what little of it that hasn't already been eliminated by previous cuts) or firing unnecessary administrators.

Keep up the good fight, Chancellor. You still have friends in this state and we'll continue to back you the best we can, no matter how daunting the odds.
By geezelouise

8/20/08 at 7:23 a.m.

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If the State didn't have to keep paying for these lawsuits like the $350,000 awarded to the prison guard yesterday, maybe there would be more money for things like education.

It sickens me that government entities lack oversight, break the law and are sued and then we the taxpayers have to foot the bill for it.

Let's start making these lawbreaking government officials accountable and responsible for their actions, and I bet it stops. Right now their philosophy is "Sue us". They don't care because the money doesn't come from their pockets, it comes from ours.
By azsk8fan

8/21/08 at 10:21 a.m.

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How about parents should feed their kids (lunch money or lunch bags) clothe their kids (retail stores or goodwill) and buy them whatever supplies they need for school (.99 cent store is a good place to start) Teachers should not have to pay for these supplies out of their own pocket nor should taxes have to go up to pay for this stuff either.
By gnelson651

8/21/08 at 7:03 p.m.

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The whole premise of this article is insulting to parents of school age children. Parants do what they can for their children by providing shelter, food and clothing while taxes continue to erode their ability to pay for the basics. Many parents themselves do not have the education to help their children with school work. This is nothing more than part-time homeschooling. I know because I had to do it with my daugther. Luckily, I have a master's degree and could help her with her school work. She would came home with incomplete information on how to do her homework. I had to pick up the slack that teachers failed to do, that is, teach my daughter how to do the work. Homework should be practice for what is learned in the classroom, not a teach it yourself lesson. I put the blame squarely on the our third rate administrators who get first rate pay. Teachers get little support in our schools. Administrators do not care about your/our children. It is an industry that is self motivated to get as much for themselves as they can. More money means higher pay, not better education for our children. The only person that cares for that child is the parent(s) and they have to pick up the tab when taxes are raised.
By Teaser

8/23/08 at 12:39 p.m.

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USA Today online has an article today about how enrollments are skyrocketing around the country at community colleges. Yet in Nevada, we slash the budget and force CSN to cancel classes, deny students, and begin to force down enrollments. And believe me, as an insider, CSN is doing more than its share to manage costs. One cannot claim inefficient management. I was very outspoken not long ago about how it didn't seem that CSN administration was doing its share; but it is. So, we are in a position where we can be more financially enriched than ever before, but the state chooses to shoot itself in the foot. Doesn't seem financially savvy to me.
By neiman1

8/25/08 at 11:32 a.m.

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Try something new. Issue vouchers and let private schools compete with the state mandated monopoly. We do it with higher education. Students can take their grants and loans to private schools and religious schools and technicals schools. Give choice back to parents and let them chose the proper education for their kids instead of the states one program fits all. The current system is broken across the country, its time to quit repeating the same thing and HOPING for different results.

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