Sun editorial:

Unkind cuts to schools

Proposals to trim programs, employee pay would only exacerbate problems in education

Friday, Nov. 21, 2008 | 2:08 a.m.

As the Clark County School District prepares to cut its budget yet again, Superintendent Walt Rulffes is making the typical rounds looking for places to trim $120 million. He has held a pair of town hall meetings to discuss potential cuts and clearly heard parents’ opposition to plans to reduce school programs.

He has also asked teachers, staff and administrators for help, wanting administrators to spread out a scheduled pay increase over two years and take an unpaid day off. Similar requests were made of teachers and staff.

As Emily Richmond reported in Tuesday’s Las Vegas Sun, the administrators union has told him no and Rulffes was still waiting to hear from the others.

It is understandable that Rulffes has asked for help — 86 percent of the district’s budget goes toward pay and benefits — but that doesn’t make it any less of a shame.

The proposal, which would help only minimally, will bring to a boil a simmering dispute between anti-government crusaders and public employees. There have been rumblings that there should be union layoffs because the members won’t take a voluntary cut.

Public education is a prime target for the government critics, who like to say “educrats” have failed and would have plenty of money in their budgets if only they rooted out waste. Those who say such things typically speak out of ideological ignorance. They have yet to show any real evidence to support their argument.

Of course, times are tough and the unions could gain some political capital by taking an unpaid day off. However, despite what critics say, it is well known that the school budget is a shadow of what it should be, and student achievement suffers because the state does not fully support education.

The schools have trimmed considerably. Now starting teachers, with college degrees and teaching credentials, are being asked to take a cut in their $35,000 a year pay? That’s ridiculous, especially when those teachers spend their own money on classroom supplies.

Further cuts to the schools, whether to educational programs, extracurricular activities or salaries, only hurt our students. Bleeding education isn’t the answer. Finding ways to properly fund education is.

Discussion: 10 comments so far…

By cnev

11/21/08 at 6:21 a.m.

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Thank You for responding to the craziness surrounding these important decisions.
I still have faith in American ingenuity.
It is the moments in time like these where we have an opportunity to evaluate how we do things and keep the focus on our children. As a teacher, I guess I am still idealistic. Our job is to prepare them for the future. Our children will have to make the tough decisions about our planet. Each day I look at the faces of my seven year old students and recognize how important it is to prepare them.
By martel3

11/21/08 at 8:49 a.m.

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Here's a novel idea. Why doesn't Dr. Ruffles lead from the front and take a significant paycut? It's insane that he gets paid twice as much as our elected Sheriff. But we can't have that kind of leadership, because it might set an example for others.
By KDR81

11/21/08 at 8:54 a.m.

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1) Give teachers and administrators an incentive to keep costs low. Profit sharing works in the private sector. That should help keep education focused and on tasked instead of spending money willy-nilly without any accountability.
2) Increasing funds for education won't improve education. http://npri.org/blog/does-more-spending-...

http://npri.org/blog/what-if-we-increase...

3) If you want education to improve, try serious reform http://npri.org/publications/no-magic-be...
By gmag39

11/21/08 at 10:43 a.m.

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kdr. let teachers teach. forget these harebrained ideas. it's nonsense. For future reference, always remember that you ultimately GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. If you pay for a Mcdonald's employee, you get a burger flipper who's semi-competent. Keep that in mind.

MARTEL3...do you have any idea what the competition is like to hire & retain a good superintendant? They are akin to a CEO. In both training and education. Again, you GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.
By KDR81

11/21/08 at 1:25 p.m.

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So then our teachers are the equivalent of burger flippers?
By Geoffrey_Lawrence

11/21/08 at 3:40 p.m.

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Paying more for bad teachers is just paying more for bad teachers. If you want quality education you have to give teachers an incentive to do better. Under the current structure, bad teaching practices are protected by the union.

If schools were allowed to compete for students and hire teachers on their own terms then teachers would have an incentive to do better - knowing that they could be rewarded for their efforts. True incentive pay is needed and those incentives can't be socialized and turned into across-the-board raises by the union. That does nothing to elevate the quality of education.
By starrynite7

11/21/08 at 7:56 p.m.

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Teachers are professionals and need to be paid like professionals. We don't ask doctors to take a cut in pay, so why on earth would ask a teacher? We work very hard for our students and we deserve to be paid accordingly. We need to cut extra programs before we attack teachers salaries. How many of you would be willing to take a pay cut after working hard to obtain your degree and Masters? Not to mention you teaching credential? We put tons of money into our classrooms and time that is way above and beyond the workday, even with our preps.
By starrynite7

11/21/08 at 8:05 p.m.

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KDR: You have been speaking total gibberish on the teacher related blogs. If you take note you have the most posts out of everyone and yet you have nothing intelligent to contribute to the conversation. Just because you were a substitute teacher does NOT in any fashion mean you have a real idea what a real teacher does ALL YEAR, everyday in the classroom. Substitute teachers have no real accountability in the classroom, they are not there everyday for the whole year. You have no idea what you are talking about and I would encourage you to get a "real life" instead of blogging total garbage on the subject you know nothing about. Go back and get your teachers certificate and teach (for real) in the classroom for four years and then, you can come back here and bash on teachers..allll dayyyy long. As far as your comment about working on your dime..that would be about right..teachers are paid about a dime and expected to raise families with substandard pay. Remember, we have education and many, many trainings under our belts. I wonder how many trainings you attend for your little job? Our days are very, very long and we work ALL weekend on our lesson plans. Many teachers spend extra hours in the classroom. I wonder how many UNPAID overtime hours you spend at your job? And as Minnie said, we do not get to cash in our unused sick leave. Please try and get your facts straight before you leave allllll your many posts on a subject you obviously know very little about except to rant and rave mindlessly the day away.
By RickHLV

11/21/08 at 10:24 p.m.

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Maybe if everyone just ignores KDR and his narcisstic know it all noone else is ever right I'm a legend in my own mind attitude he'll go away. After all, even the plague went away after a while. He wants only to run his mouth on here and incite anger to make up for all the times he was shoved in his locker at school, hence his dislike for Teachers. If he ever left his house someone would probably run him over, and that would be a tragedy .... if it dented some poor drivers car.
By johnevegas

11/22/08 at 6:23 a.m.

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"Maybe if everyone just ignores KDR and his narcisstic know it all noone else is ever right I'm a legend in my own mind attitude he'll go away."

Hmmmm, the Microsoft approach. Maybe if we just ignore the bug, it will go away.

I like the IBM approach better. A bug? We'll need to replace the entire thing.