Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

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Gov. Jim Gibbons reveals ignorance about the critical role of higher education in Nevada

The guest speaker Tuesday morning before 75 members of the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce was Gov. Jim Gibbons, who was in rare form as he discussed one of his favorite subjects, higher education.

Gibbons, you may recall, is seeking a 36 percent reduction in Nevada’s investment in higher education as part of his plan to decimate the state budget over the next two years. Not to worry. Gibbons believes the state can still succeed at boosting the state economy through development of renewable energy.

That prompted Steven Laden, vice president of a Reno financial services company, to ask the governor how he plans to support an industry that relies on a highly educated workforce while gutting higher education.

As reported by the Reno Gazette-Journal, Gibbons said that it was up to businesses — not higher education — to invest in the state’s renewable energy economy. “It doesn’t start with the universities,” Gibbons said.

It was an inane response from Gibbons, who has countless times shown a propensity for speaking before thinking. Without universities, there would be no renewable energy companies. There wouldn’t be trained executives to run the companies and there wouldn’t be qualified engineers and other specialists to design and operate the facilities.

When Laden expressed fear that top high school students would be driven out of state by Nevada’s budget cuts, the governor said callously: “Well, we can’t have every student we would like. Then Harvard and Yale and Stanford and Penn ... wouldn’t have all the people they are trying to recruit.”

Nice plug for Nevada’s universities, governor. Whose team are you on?

This exchange, more than any other, exposed Gibbons’ ignorance of the critical role that higher education plays in Nevada. Many of the state’s brightest students — and potential future leaders — would not be forced to leave Nevada if this state made a stronger effort to compete academically with out-of-state institutions. That effort requires money and a governor who appreciates the value of higher education.

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