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Friday, Dec. 10, 2010 | 2 a.m.
STINGING REPORT
Nevada’s historically stingy funding of K-12 and higher education is the foundation of a report — “Nevada: 50th in the Nation for Education” — prepared by state leaders in fields such as banking, architecture and real estate. The report says Nevada will never rise above its dependence on boom and bust cycles tied to tourism and construction if its government leaders continue to depend on low taxes — instead of top-notch schools — as their ace in the hole for attracting businesses.
John Restrepo
Somer Hollingsworth
Sun archives
- School officials told to brace for cuts in excess of 10 percent (12-9-2010)
- Las Vegas ranks near bottom of ‘Brainiest Bastions’ list (12-6-2010)
- Report: Nevada dropout rate grows to worst in the country (11-30-2010)
- ‘Ouch’ — School District grappling with $180 million deficit (11-19-2010)
- University system snubs governor, won’t submit budget with cuts (10-28-2010)
- America’s ‘dumbest’ city? Annual report says Las Vegas (10-26-2010)
- Diversification dollars demanded (9-24-2010)
- Officials choose 7 proposals in effort to diversify economy (9-14-2010)
- State education officials fear deep cuts for public schools (8-14-2010)
- Ed Week study: Nevada last in rankings for “chances for success,” fares slightly better in others (1-15-2010)
- Effort will look at diversification of Vegas economy (10-9-2009)
- Economic diversity, new jobs are essential, leaders say (9-4-2009)
The people who champion low state taxes as a way to recruit businesses to Nevada are undermining the state’s future by not advocating what businesses really need for success: better schools.
That is the conclusion reached by 40 community leaders who examined the role of education in diversifying Nevada’s economy.
If low tax rates were the key to attracting businesses, Silicon Valley-style economic clusters would be sprouting in Nevada rather than in Northern California, Seattle, Boston or North Carolina’s Research Triangle, the group said.
“Touting ourselves as a low tax state as the only reason people want to come here has proved to be a failure,” said John Restrepo, principal of Restrepo Consulting Group and a member of the study group. “If low taxes were all we needed, and we have been touting that, we wouldn’t have a 15 percent unemployment rate.”
The group’s report, “Nevada: 50th in the Nation for Education,” emanated from a round-table discussion among representatives of banking, architecture, law enforcement, education, real estate and government.
They met in August under the sponsorship of UNLV’s Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies and have published their findings. Dominant among them: Nevada won’t diversify its economy and prevent another deep recession unless education is valued in the community and more money is invested in public schools and colleges.
People and businesses leave Nevada or never move here because the educational system fails to meet their needs. The region is particularly off-putting to innovative, cutting-edge employers who seek excellent schools, the report said.
“We can no longer shortchange the state’s public schools, colleges and universities because of a lack of financial, political, social and economic will,” the report said. “To do so is shortsighted and will simply find us falling further behind Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah and other states in the push to lure the innovative entrepreneurs, investors and workers of the coming decades. To do so will relegate Nevadans to continued cycles of boom and bust that are heavily dependent upon the uncertain fortunes of the gaming, construction and government-employment sectors.”
Somer Hollingsworth, president and CEO of the Nevada Development Authority, a nonprofit organization that recruits companies to Southern Nevada, said he agrees more money has to be invested in education to lure “the finest companies” in the long term, but said companies are moving here that pay $30 to $50 an hour and are satisfied with the state’s schools.
“The problem is we have never sold this as a business climate or put any serious money marketing that. We have sold ourselves as a resort industry,” Hollingsworth said. Improved education might help the state’s future but does nothing to help today’s economy, he said.
The study’s participants, however, said the state can’t afford to wait any longer to address educational shortcomings that place Nevada at the bottom of various national rankings.
“Low graduation rates put us at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to the development of the next generation of qualified workforce employees,” the report said. “It also fosters a reputation of failed educational achievement that makes it difficult to persuade potential employers to move here.”
Among the report’s suggestions:
• The Nevada Legislature should reform how funding is distributed to reflect Southern Nevada’s greater contribution to the state budget, and discussions must be held on tax reform.
• The state should pursue the opening of a major medical school in Southern Nevada.
• Business leaders and local chambers of commerce must argue that an investment in education is the first step to the sort of diversification that will prevent the economy from returning to a deep recession.
The report said that although Southern Nevada has talked about economic diversification for years, it was “little more than talk” until the economic collapse under the Great Recession that has seen 15 percent unemployment rates, foreclosures ravaging communities and hundreds of thousands of people struggling to pay their bills and feed their children.
With better schools, Nevada would be in a better position to recruit companies in such fields as medical services, communications, accounting, green jobs, law and financial services.
“But other regions throughout the country are chasing the same employers, and many communities are well ahead of us when it comes to their overall investment in public K-12, colleges and universities,” the report said.
Nasser Daneshvary, the Lied Institute’s director, acknowledged that diversification has been talked about for 10 to 15 years and little has resulted. He said he hopes the report is taken seriously by business and political leaders.
Restrepo said economic diversification and other white papers have been ignored or shelved by politicians and not advanced by the business community, but there’s a sea change in attitudes taking place that more has to be done to weather the next recession.
Although the existing political climate of no new taxes in a state facing a $3 billion budget deficit poses a challenge today, the report sets the stage to deal with the issue when the economy improves, Restrepo said.
“It takes patience and a huge amount of investment,” Restrepo said. “If we don’t do that, we have to accept that we are going to ride the business cycle and be vulnerable to discretionary spending.”
They needed 15 PhD's to come up with this conclusion?
I've been saying it until I am blue in the face...no companies are locating here unless the population starts getting educated. It's the central key to diversifying the economy from a 1 business town.
Education, education, education. 50-60% drop out rates guarantees one thing: no right minded business that needs qualified, educated people will locate here..low taxes or not.
This is just a bunch of nonsense to justify more waste and unneeded administrators in our schools. Putting in more business taxes will drive business away. Leave things as they are. More taxes in not the right thing to do. More efficiently run schools will solve the problem.
Gov'ner Sandy is goin' to cut edjukashun to the BONE.
Ain't no sense in pretending we're gonna git better.
Diversify? Why, we're goin' to DIVESTIFY our skools!
However, if you got $20,000 to send yer kid to private skool like Sandy, he'd like Nevader to subsidize that fer ya by handing y'all a nice check fer like, $6000 or so.
Now, that's what I call maTRICKulatin'!!!
We dun't need know stinkin edukashun. Weez r doin jest fune weth ot it!
Congratulations to these Geniuses for coming to the conclusion that the rest of the country knew for 40+ years. Please tell me Tax Dollars are not used to state the Obvious.
Any road map on how they plan on getting there (In our lifetime) or is this just a make work program?
Lowest Rated Educations System, Lowest Rated Hospital System, Lowest Quality of Life for Families. If none of these issues were ever addressed when there was plenty of money, how will these be addressed when there is little money?
I think we all know the answer.
California taxes never stopped the greatest technology and business development the world has seen in one place, and it's for one reason: Education. That's why California is a Blue state.
California placed accessible, public education at the top of it's priorities and that's where the billionaires stay and place their Headquarters, not in Reno for a tax break.
Paying 8% taxes on a job makes a lot more money than ZERO TAXES on NO JOBS.
Red States: Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, all Red States, big on Religion, down on Education. Among the thriving technologies there are Soul saving and the garbage collection business, which have interesting similarities.
The real purpose behind destroying public education is to make certain America has an abundance of young people for Military use. The Infantryman doesn't need history, English, science to deploy. If they can't find a job - the Military is ready to give them one and then they can learn to pray at the same time. The Military IS STIMULUS SPENDING as Hitler demonstrated, and the Nazi troops were required to pray before going into battle..."Gott Mit Uns" was on their belt buckles. The Nazi soldiers were Christians.
China today is taking on all the Education it can generate and in twenty years, will have mass rapid rail transit, airplane industries and financial power. The Reds on the other hand, (who complain about the other 'Reds') want to teach us how dinosaurs rode on Noah's Ark. Oh Whoopie snot.
Shhh, all you experts need to just hush up now - you don't wanna take a chance on wakin' guvenah sandoval.
Lets say that the fairy godmother decided to give Nevada 10 billion dollars per year to be used to help educate the 50 percenters who are now dropping out.
How are you need more money for education touters going to spend it to raise the graduation rate?
Has anyone asked the 50 percenters WHY THEY DON'T FINISH SCHOOL?
Of course not!
Throwing money at the public school system is merely throwing good money after bad. If money were the answer, the Washington D.C. public shool system would be putting out Rhodes Scholars instead of being one of the worst in the nation even though it spends (wastes?) more per pupil than any other. The answer? Vouchers and competition. gmag39 writes about those who can afford to opt out of the public school system getting a better education and he is correct. So, why not give financial backing to parents of lesser means so as to be able to do the same for their kids? Let them shop for the best possible schools. Why saddle their kids with the burden of attending schools that no longer educate but indoctrinate? The system today is set up so poorer kids have less chance to succeed than the ones with richer parents. It's a travesty that the administrators and the unions get theirs while the students, for the most part, are shafted!
Diversity got us into the problems we see these days. To hell with diversity. Ship them all back.
Mo' money ain't necessarily the answer, but LESS MONEY is a complete disaster.
Obviously, money isn't the whole equation, but it certainly is in there...
There's over-funded, adequately funded, and under-funded.
If you rank near the bottom in per-pupil spending, and the educational outcomes are near the bottom, what correlation may be drawn? Hmmmmm???
This is very true and been proven for years that low taxes alone does not attract businesses. Educated work force, good public safety, and transportation are key parts too.
We need a state leader that recognizes this. While I agree that Charter Schools if ran correctly can make huge strides to making a better education system we at the same time can't take money away from the school systems with vouchers when the school systems have already been cut to the bone.
Properly fund education and than allow vouchers in certain cases to help diversify the education system and school choice.
Gov Elect Sandoval are you listening?
It's the whole package that is required...better schools and quality of life ! What CEO wants his workers to in a town knwn as: "Move to Vegas - we have a great education system, high graduation rate, wonderful shows, 24 hour gambling, sex clubs, prostitution, etc"...Vegas - a great place to raise your kids, because what goes on in Vegas will stay in Vegas...yes, schools wil lhelp a great deal, but when most of the kids in schools are illegals or with families that don't care if their kids are in school or not, you need a community BEHIND the town, not part of the problem..
It isn't about throwing more money at education. It is about improving the states environment for education.
At the moment, Nevada seems content to produce service industry serfs reliant on the tourism industry or employees to work in construction. When both these fail to offer work we have 14% unemployment.
Low tax environments, whilst good for many businesses, tend to produce low skill, low wage employment. So basically, more of the same type of jobs. We certainly are not attracting technology, high skilled employees-who seem happy to pay higher taxes in CA, NY etc.
Can you name a company in Southern Nevada that employs more than 20,000 people that isn't a casino?
"The people who champion low state taxes as a way to recruit businesses to Nevada are undermining the state's future by not advocating what businesses really need for success: better schools."
These two (tax collection and student achievement) are unrelated. For one, Nevada ranks about middle of the pack in total tax collection per capita. And as everyone knows (who is thinking about the issue) schools are funded with both state and local taxes (so focusing on state taxes only is a waste of time).
Also, there is already a consensus on education spending and that is more spending is unlikely to produce greater results. There is a reason for this: It is not how much you spend that matters, but how effectively you spend what you already have.
Mr. Becker,
The Tech sector is growing more rapidly in Texas than in California. In fact, in California Silicone Valley has bled as much as it has grown. Overall, California's income growth is flat while poverty growth is on the rise.
California also spends about $2,000 more per pupil than Nevada and perform WORSE.
Here is the irony: There is an article here stating that education needs to be prepared to cut another 10% from their budget..
Yes...let's do that AND make sure the children of Nevada get a great education!!!
Please!
Proof Mr. Gibbons? And how do you explain a place like the Twin Cities, which has 19 fortune 500 companies headquartered in the area, and also a world class education system supported by a much higher tax base than states like Nevada? (This includes, gasp, an income tax). Medtronic, 3M, Best Buy, General Mills, Target, Ecolab, US Bancorp, and so forth--many of these draw directly on the research and intellectual talent produced by the education system. This is called investing in human capital, and it's what thinking people realize needs to happen in order to create an economically diversified economy.
In the name of full disclosure,
Patrick_R_Gibbons works for NPRI, is paid to push a no taxes position, and is using only the statistical numbers that allow him to spin the issue.
lvfacts101 wrote: "Throwing money at the public school system is merely throwing good money after bad . . . "
lvfacts101 Hit the nail on the head . . . I am in full agreement with his entire comment.
Excuse me for such brash notions, but doesn't it seem a bit odd that we are talking about people's lives here, not their educations.
Addressing the education of impressionable youth who could do stuff we can not even imagine as an afterthought, as an added value to our economy, appears tantamount to knocking on our door to tell us the lawn needs mowing and then adding as you walk away that the back of the house is on fire.
These people have their lives ahead of them; we support them a tad and leave them to struggle like bugs with nothing in a world busting out with information technology, personalized instruction and a chance at figuring out how we might get out of this hole.
Gee, dja tink maybe they deserve what we obviously did NOT get, a grip?
In the name of full disclosure, BE IT KNOWN that I Joe Lamy, aka airweare, do NOT, repeat, do NOT work for any org trying to post so your mind goes with my plan for it.
Quite the opposite is true.
It is my wish that each you of finds in your soul the fire and the light to see your own facts your own way and rise up and shine your own way too.
It's such a slow boil that we frogs seldom get the fact that there's one way out of here, and nobody's gettin any younger. Heaven has a PC filter, so if you want to act like you give a sh*t, relax. nobody gives a sh*t!
Of course, Texas, which has no income tax, has had more job growth in the last two years than pretty much the other 49 states combined. It is interesting that people can point to red states that do not do well but it can be just cherry picking your facts. And some of the people I know in the high tech business world have chosen to build in places like Austin, TX and Albuquerque, NM rather than Silicon Valley just because of the the cost issues there. They still get a lot of business there because of the people there. They have a talent pool, investors and existing tech companies, but over the last few years that is ceasing to be enough for a growing number of companies. Plus, you talk about basic tax policy and are not exploring the extent to which various levels of government in any location are providing incentives for companies to build there. I know that several large builds in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina are there because of large tax breaks given to the companies that built. So, it isn't just as simple as low taxes don't work but it is a combination of policies. We need to fix education in this state but anyone who says it is strictly a monetary issue is deluded at best. There seems to be plenty of evidence to show that throwing money at the problem doesn't fix schools. Hopefully the new governor will put together a team that will spend the time to find solutions to the problems that we have with education.
More money probably won't improve educational outcomes in CCSD -- it was broken before the budget cuts came into play. We need to a)raise standards & lengthen the school day & year, b)hold students & teachers accountable for classroom performance, and not hesitate to quickly identify & weed out the bottom performing 5% of both, c) provide alternative educational pathways for parents & students, notably the 5% once they figure out they're sc***ed without an education, d)streamline the system from K-Graduate School to maximize accomplishments and minimize redundancy & overhead, e)institute annual standardized testing to gauge student, teacher & school performance in K-10 grades, and f)reward teacher classroom performance, not academic achievement (there are undoubtedly a number of highly experienced in their fields math, science, tech, and foreign language professionals who'd love to teach if they didn't have to play & pay for the educational bureacracy's certification games -- instead we get liberal arts or ed majors trying to teach subjects they know little about & don't particularly care for).
Patrick - how ironic you brought up Texas, because Texas doesn't have personal uncome taxes either - just like Nevada. The tax burden falls almost entirely on businesses. The difference is Texas has good schools, social services, and health care gladly supported by businesses.
People educated in Vegas, stay in Vegas. They can't compete anywhere else.
All together, now -
SAVE OUR SKOOLS!
SAVE OUR SKOOLS!
SAVE OUR SKOOLS!
More empty rhetoric that will not result in anyting being done. The whole public education system is rotten to the core. You can not tell me that a so called education system that graduates only 50% of its students, as in Nevada, is nothing but an abject failure. It's not only a Nevada problem either, the most recent highly regarded Program For International Assessment (PISA), which measures learning among 15 year olds in 65 countries, resulted in the US scoring 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in mathematics. Well below average. There needs to be a shake up and major changes implemented, a education Czar needs to be appointed in Nevada to go in and clean house. Throwing more money at the problem or bemoaning the lack of money or budgets being cut, etc. is not going to solve the problem. Two thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, with a body mass index (BMI) over 25. It's time we cut the fat personally and in our education programs.
Some good ideas, NLV-Indep13. There's a lot of fat to cut in the district, and there are a lot of lower priority programs that should be eliminated (temporarily) now, so that the core functions can be funded adequately. Focus on k-12, core programs...Math, Science, English, Art, Music, and yes, even sports. Cut out adult education programs for the time being. Implement pay for performance (principals/teachers) and identify and reward the many great teachers that are out there. Renegotiate the teacher contracts so that we can fire underperforming teachers more easily, and get them off the payroll all together (no "rubber room" type of situations, where they get paid to not teach while awaiting their "hearing"). We need to focus on teacher training. Send Math & Science teachers to national conventions or seminars so that they can improve their skills and bring back some innovative, great ideas for the classroom.
In my opinion (based on data I've seen), charter schools and "empowerment" schools don't perform much better than traditional schools. It's just a fancy, modern label for the same crap. Vouchers SOUND like a good idea, but the good schools fill up quickly, and the private schools cost much more than the vouchers would be worth, and the poor kids would be left behind. I suppose it wouldn't be terrible if the private schools were obligated to accept the voucher as full payment, if they wanted to participate in the program. Still, states run into problems with transportation costs, so it's a tricky issue.
There is some good in the district, but there's a ton of waste. Administration is a joke. We can't see the financials in a clear format, either because they're intentionally hiding the waste or the board simply doesn't know how to prepare a simple budget and a set of financials. What more can we expect when we elect the type of board members that we have.
I think we need something similar to what Michelle Rhee implemented in DC (the district experienced the largest gains on national test scores from '07-'09, both math and reading, in both 4th and 8th grade), with more communication and opportunities for principals/teachers/schools to improve. It's not popular...parents hate hearing that the teacher that coddles them and is extremely nice/pleasant, is actually a completely incompetent, ineffective teacher. Tough pill to swallow, but it's absolutely necessary to identify and eliminate these problem employees.
Until we legalize forced sterilization, the lower stratification of society will continue to pump out more children that they can properly raise.
Currently, this is an accepted byproduct of our capitalistic system and our choices is to ignore that byproduct or to throw outside resources at properly raising these unfortunate children through schools, as they do in most developed countries. Of course, ignoring the ever-growing strata of "parent-challenged" offspring comes due when these kids are "released" into society. Resulting in the old adage, we can pay now or pay later.
Due to the effects of our capitalistic society, we are all forced to step in for the significant number of households that cannot and do not care for their children. Our only answer to this dilemma are our schools. Schools need to become neighborhood centers that provide a nurturing resource for all children. School hours need to be expanded, schools should be open on the weekends, and an increase in activities thru the school need to be provided.
Yes, this model of a "school resource centers" will require a significant investment. But you can pay now, or pay later.
Sebring,
That is a logically fallacious comment. Who I work for (or don't) doesn't matter. If it did, I could just conclude that half of the panel cited in this report works for government and so of course they'd want to tax everyone to pay for their jobs. That would be a logically fallacious conclusion, however.
If I'm spinning the numbers, prove it. Show, don't tell! :P
improve LV---some excellent ideas, now that's what I am talking about. I am in favor of getting back to basics----mathematics, english, biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, etc. etc. Stop advancing underacheiving students, if their self esteem has to take a hit, so be it, they will get over it. We are doing ill prepared students no favor by advancing them if they are not qualified to go to the next level. Back in the day, if you didn't meet the standard at a particular level, you were held back, simple as that. That decision was based on the assessment of your teacher and the school administration, i.e., principal. Too much emphasis on teaching to these stupid standardized tests. And, at the risk of stirring up the bees in one of my favorite fellow commenter's bonnet (he appears in rare form today, must be off his meds), open up the teaching profession to those without teacher certification if they can demonstrate they can teach.
HST,
Run a regression analysis on spending and student achievement. You'll find many that are not statistically significant and every single one will show extremely weak relationships if they even exist. With low-income students the results may actually be negative.
I'm doing a few myself right now and I will have them posted later.
As for taxing and spending, Nevada does in fact rank middle of the pack - from the left-of-center Brookings Institution http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/...
Nevada ranks 24th in state and local tax collection per capita.
Full disclosure, Brian Greenspun sits on the Brookings board....
iamwinkler, I absolutely agree that advancing undeserving kids is a HUGE national problem. Early education is SO important, we're not doing any favors for these kids that are just pushed through the system.
Duh!!!
Several writers praised Texas as a red state success story. Yes it is. But it comes with these caveats:
Property tax is about 3%, ours is around 1%.
Houston is so polluted that it is recommended that if you fall into Buffalo Bayou, you immediately head to the emergency room. Their air is so bad, they have "Ozone Alerts" all the time. Galveston Beach is so polluted that warnings are issued about "sea flea" infestations in the water. Port Arthur has a ban on water wells, due to ground pollution due to petrochemicals.
But I liked Austin, Texas. Educated people, beautiful area, stringent building codes. The Hill Country is awesome. But wait a minute, isn't Austin infested with liberals? How can that be?
See, in this Redneck hell hole, we have no pollution, lousy hospitals, low taxes, the worst schools ever. Take your choice....
"If low taxes were all we needed, and we have been touting that, we wouldn't have a 15 percent unemployment rate."
"We can no longer shortchange the state's public schools, colleges and universities because of a lack of financial, political, social and economic will," the report said. "To do so is shortsighted and will simply find us falling further behind Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah and other states in the push to lure the innovative entrepreneurs, investors and workers of the coming decades.
Propaganda touting taxation enhancements for public educational services under the ruse of economic diversity -- which aptly explains why virtually everything purchased at China-Mart (a.k.a. Walmart) is manufactured in Communist China -- that's why Caterpillar Tractor expanded their fabrication operations in Mexico instead of Illinois during the '80s -- that's why companies are flocking out of America to seek higher education providers in China and Mexico.
Today's southern Nevada economic issues are primarily centered around the collape of the local construction industry, which directly employed nearly 15% of Nevadan's and indirectly employed several additional percentages, which has resulted in an unsustainable "overbuilt" condition of competition and vacancies -- not high school drop-out rates, unlike our China and Mexico producers.
The backbone of public educational services should be readily available to every American in the most cost efficient manner utilizing current technologies -- delivered in multiple languages through the Internet instead of the current costly, inefficient, obsolete, repetitive, unhealthy public classroom environments which punish the liberties of those merely seeking shelter of property ownership but are incumbered by the life-long costs of supporting an inefficient public education industry they can't affectively utilize.
America's basic infrastructure is rapidly deteriorating despertly needing those with proficiencies in labor skills to get the construction industry back to work, instead of more PhD's in psychology from UNLV.
The tourist industry needs those skilled in multiple languages to better service a world theatre. While the industry needs to establish in-house service training programs.
Most of all, Americans need far less government intervention to force it's citizenry into being responsible to their own needs and actions while utilizing the techologies already developed which offer everyone the opportunities in becoming more efficient and competitive without being forcibly attached to some public education umbilical cord their entire lives.
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@TonyV
Texas is also known for high property taxes, especially in urban areas. Multiples higher than urban counties in Nevada. So high business and property tax, no income tax.
Although the school system is in shambles, it is not more money that will fix it. Throwing money at a broken system will just make it a more expensive broken system. What we need is better parents. Unfortunately, too many parents in Nevada are transients who don't care about their child's education. Additionally, we reward uneducated young adults with high paying jobs such as dealing and valet.
This isn't rocket science you political idiots.
Education has been around since the beginning. Go to other cities and see what they are doing right, and copy. If it requires more money for education, then make it possible. Raise taxes on whatever (slightly).
If you have great schools and colleges, then the wealthy people and companies will come.
Vegas has great weather year around, and one of the lowest cost of living with easy access anywhere.
People like Summer Hollingsworth have been poisoning the Nevada economy for years. They want to ignore tomorrow for a few more jobs today. If we had invested in the long term back in the early nineties, we would be much better off today. Instead of bringing in $10 per hour call centers, we might be attracting real businesses that would increase the standard of living in this Valley.
The greatest societies, including Pre 1980's America, always invested in the long term first. People like Hollingsworth need to be stuffed in a rocket and launched into deepest outer space.
kevinthemanharris:
Why are our best families transient? Because we have nothing but crappy jobs in this town. Why do we have nothing but crappy jobs in this town? Because that's exactly the type of business that seeks out low tax communities. We are great at attracting call centers, tourism, and minimum wage crap businesses. We are incapable of attracting anything that requires serious skill, and its the jobs that requires skill that attract long term residents.
Summer Hollingsworth needs to be sent back to Barstow, or Vacaville, or Palmdale, or Fresno, or whatever crappy hole he crawled out of, and the real people need to get back to work to build a community that will thrive not just today, but many years from today.
So it appears that those who are being paid have grown indignant with being accused of presenting information that is dressed up like an ordinary sheep but is actually a fox, a well-reimbursed fox, quick with the details and regression analysis to prove her point. "What's wrong with whoring, sugar?" she may inquire, seductively.
'Jes 'cause I make bank on showing yall what fools ya are for caving in to all dis tax an spen crapola.'
'It don't mean dat whut I say ain't true, eggzackly. Jes shaded a bit. Steered. Aimed. Directed and distorted and well paid for. was yer boss in on the girly deal in Macau? Mmm.. pretty hot little asian women...' happy friday PRG
Doogie is spot on with the Austin Texas assessment. That is one top-drawer town. And well yes, it may be full of pullenty of liberals like Willie Nelson, but you'll find a staunch conservative element there as well under rocks and up in the hills.
Hot in the summer, and when it rains sometimes, it pours out sideways.
We all need to recognize that 'education' IS the answer to prosperity and higher standards of living...however, we also all need to recognize that the cost of 'education' ISN'T the critical driver...like many have, Mr. Wargo, either intentionally or unintentionally, confuses correlation with causation...the unfortunate consequence of this mistake is evident daily...
By Patrick Gibbons' any-amount-is-adequate logic, he should never need another raise. His salary need never increase, only his efficiency and productivity. Education has been gutted, but he's still yammering about the need to cut education funding. I don't get it.
Nevada's industries attract many transient and low-income workers. That affects the social fabric of the state. The problem with Nevada's education system isn't our teachers, but our indulged, undertaxed businesses and their reluctance to support the workforce they require.
Mr. Gibbons can provide all the numbers he wants. I suspect I could find numbers that counter his. As Disraeli said, there's "Lies, damned lies, and statistics." I am just using common sense. Look at the places with the most vibrant economies--the Twin Cities, Seattle, Silicon Valley, Boston--they all have world-class education systems. Even Texas has good corporate citizens like Texas Instruments, willing to invest in their education systems. Those places that let their schools crumble--Mississippi is the premier example, but much of the deep south--are among the poorest, per capita, in the nation. Again, it's just common sense.
Harley +1000.The internet is like the Library of Alexandria at your personal disposal,yet none is taking advantage of this fact.The effecincy of this mode of information and teaching is astounding.Anyone who want's to be educated and has the internet really has no excuse to be uneducated and ignorant anymore.We can educate all at afraction of the money we are spending now.Stepping on too many vested interests mabey?
Exactly HST - unfortunately, for people like Mr. Gibbons and the rest of his ilk, they don't have any long term interest in the welfare of our state. They can't see long term, only the present and their personal interest. Which obviously, is NOT the diversification of our industries or the future of our children.
re: Mr. Hollingsworth's comments. I hope they were taken out of context, and were not simply an exercise in duplicity to protect his job.
What companies are moving here that are paying $30 to $50 an hour that are satisfied with our educational system? Can he produce a list, excluding escort services?
And, as far as I can remember, his website - Nevada Development Authority - has always promoted Southern Nevada as the best business climate in the country - not as a resort destination.
Fifty years ago this was a single industry town. Fifty years later this is still a single industry town with no plan for the future.
Its time to pull the plug on our tax system.
Hi Folks,
Getting close to the holidays with all the stressors, I mixed up my lesson today and assigned the kids in my various classes [Auto 1, Auto 3, Advanced Study in Auto]a paper responding to the Sun arr\ticle. Although I have not yet read all 120 papers I skimmed some to get a sense of what the customers were saying. That's right.....the customers. We give short shrift to student thinking on this issue except, in a few instances, the best and the brightest. Quite a few kids are bright enough to understand that their education is, at best, marginal. They know that they have boring and worse teachers in some cases, that subject matter is only remotely connected to the skills that they will need once past the schoolhouse door, they know that they are not being taught to think but to pass test after test after test.
As one student noted, "Adults won't make a serious changes to education because the current system gives them something to argue about." Pretty accurate insight for a 16 year old average B/C student.
It's kinda like the introduction to life. And we all know we get ONE chance to make a first impression.
When young and pliable, kids can really gobble up the stuff and make their brains work.
If they get older and haven't discovered some powers inside them, then their whole pile of hours on this planet are spent squandering what could have been something.
Get the fires started and there is no need to feed it; autonomous learners discover and research and query and seek to find and not to yield.
It's not an economic question; rather, it's a moral imperative.