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Monday, Feb. 28, 2011 | 7:13 p.m.
Sun Archives
- Parents voice concerns about proposed cuts to education
- Democrats open round in battle over state funding
- Officials say budget could leave 2,500 teachers jobless, force tax hike
- Fitch Ratings downgrades debt of Clark County School District
- Clark County School Board hears the grim budget details it confronts
Sun Coverage
It was a standing-room only, largely partisan crowd Monday night at Green Valley High School that urged state lawmakers to fight budget cuts in education proposed by Gov. Brian Sandoval. The crowd consisted mainly of teachers and those who supported them.
Perhaps the most poignant testimony, however, was by an 8-year-old boy whose swinging feet didn't touch the floor as he sat and leaned toward the microphone.
Christopher Hughes, a third-grader at Beatty Elementary School, told the joint subcommittee of the Legislature: "I am worried."
Hughes said budget cuts would hurt education but also the availability of school nurses. He said he has diabetes.
Hughes said later, "I testified because I want to protect every program in my school, including library, art, music and physical education." He added: "The other kids are upset, too, because they like learning."
His mother, Geo Hughes, said there were times in the past when Christopher's blood sugar ran low and he became sick. Sometimes there wasn't a full-time school nurse or paraprofessional available, she said.
"Christopher is a bright child," his mother said. "He's in a program for gifted and academically talented students. I'm afraid programs like that won't be there for my son."
The hearing was co-chaired by Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, chairwoman of the Ways and Means Committee, and Sen. Steven Horsford, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Horsford is also the state Senate majority leader. Both are Democrats.
Republicans, such as Assistant Senate Minority Leader Barbara Cegavske, also attended.
Jeff Weiler, the Clark County School District's chief financial officer, testified that cuts proposed by Sandoval exceed $250 million or more per year.
The cuts equal $870 per student, Weiler said, with current spending at about $7,000 each year.
The first constituent who testified was 72-year-old Dan Hickey, a physician's assistant in Las Vegas.
"My daddy said don't spend money that you don't got," said Hickey, to silence. He said the school district had services that were duplicated by local government, including school district police.
Hickey concluded by telling the lawmakers: "Don't spend money that I don't got."
More popular were remarks like that of John J. Carr, president of the Education Support Employees Association: "Mr. Sandoval, this is not 'Little House on the Prairie.' Don't fund it as if it were."
The auditorium at Green Valley was crowded mainly with adults, while about 200 students and parents outside the room listened on a public-address system.
Internal Revenue 'Service'
U.S. Postal 'Service'
Telephone 'Service'
Cable TV 'Service'
Civil 'Service'
State, City, County & Public 'Service'
Customer 'Service'
This is not what I thought 'Service' meant.
But two farmers were talking, and one of them said he had hired a bull to 'Service' a few cows.
BAM!!! It all comes into focus. Now we can understand what all those
agencies are doing to us.
Parents should put their money where their mouths are or keep them shut. If EVERY parent PAID 1000$ per kid to attend CCSD there would be no crisis. Do the math if you can add. 1000 dollars per kid x 300,000 kids would create an annual (broad based tax) of 300 million dollars enough to cover any budget shortfalls... and that is A STEAL...do the daycare math (if you can do basic addition) and that is what many of today's dysfunctional parents think education is...daycare. Why should casino's or mining have to pay for someone else's kid? I know this goes against liberal logic, but if parents had to pony up for their kids education, they might actually take it serious. The day people realize that EDUCATION IS A PRIVILEGE NOT A RIGHT is the day schools and teachers will get the RESPECT they deserve. Until then, ignorant politicians will continue to use and blame them for everything including students poor performance so that they can weasle out the majority of pathetic parent's (if you can even call them that these days) vote. get a clue people
What a sad day for Nevada -- when a child of eight must defend his education so eloquently against a selfish senior who can't speak a grammatically correct sentence!
Chunky says:
No one and no entity can sustain spending more than it earns or takes in in revenue.
Learn to do more with less with some ingenuity and hard work to make it work.
Fuss, fight, protest and complain all you want but expenses have to be cut across the board.
That's what Chunky thinks!
Sorry Chunky but you are obviously a product of a substandard education. Your byline is not cute. No one refers to themselves in the third person in a reasonable way.
When was the last time you visited the legislature? When was the last time you visited a school?
Lose some weight
Hurray, today Governor Sandoval released more unfunded mandates about how we're supposed to fix our education system. It saddens me to see Nevada demanding "more reforms" while expecting "more for less".
Welcome to reality, where you get lesser results for less money. This whole slash and burn ideology is garbage.
Mining pays .5% in taxes while I pay a higher rate with just sales tax and people like Chunky continue to scream that they can't afford the reforms but still expect them. I am leaving this sinking ship called Nevada for a state that actually values education; just like many people before me.
Nevada can't be bothered to invest in education I'm sure not going to bother investing in it. I advise anyone else with an education and a brain to do the same.
40% of our students are Hispanic, and the ratio is ever expanding. 50% of them speak ESL (English as a second language), and require special bilingual teachers. Yes, their parents pay rent, ergo taxes just like the rest of us. But you have to wonder if the burden placed on our school system by these newly arriving immigrants exceeds the cost of educating our other students.
Welcome to the USA, everybody.
Any State that values Prostitution as an income source will only attract scrappers as new businesses.
"Up with Prostitution, Down with Education."
That will be the title of many websites being designed to tell businesses what to expect when they move here.
"money that I don't GOT???" OMG - what an embarrassment! :( Mr. Hickey, please STFU, stop embarrassing yourself and sit down now, PLEASE.
Don't worry Mr. Hickey azsk8fan is here for the rescue. I think he's a christian and wants to help.
Put an 8 year child at the microphone....give me a break.
The people elected Governor Sandoval to CUT SPENDING. Half of the cuts must be to education where more than half the money goes. They ARE NOT TEACHING OUR CHILDREN to read or anything else worth while. Why pay them so much more than the national averages? REALLOCATE SUT DISTRIBUTION: Less to cities, counties, school districts, a bit more to state agencies until WE CAN CUT MEDICAID'S EXPONENTIAL GROWTH BY DEPORTING ANCHOR BABIES.
We CANNOT AFFORD A TEACHER FOR EVERY 16 ILLEGAL KIDS. And we cannot afford a professor for every 100 or so. DENY ADMISSION TO UNIVERSITIES TO ILLEGAL INVADERS AND ANCHOR BABIES. The Governors are trying to tell the President that MEDICAID IS "EATING US ALIVE." CONNECT THE DOTS ROCKET SCIENTISTS. Teachers you might tune in. IF WE MUST SPEND TRILLIONS ON ILLEGALS THERE'S NOTHING LEFT FOR YOU.
@JPDVEGAS...you are 100% correct. I spoke last night at the meeting. I tried to make the point, Parents need to invest in their kids education.
Senator Horsford cut me off. Said my time was up...
I guess he is not interested in any other solution than to raise taxes on business.
when you start touting education as a PRIVILEGE and not a RIGHT, it's the sign of the beginning of the end for America. Now I'm not against parents having to pay money to put their kids into school, but the previous mentioned idea is one of the reasons why America is being left in the dust. I personally don't have children and I have no problems paying taxes that fund education.
I think the schools should be funded from peoples unemployment checks and we should cut back of feeding the homeless. So these greedy teachers and their union can get what they want. Maybe we should look at there sick leave record.
Taxes need to be raised on mining. These foreign companies pay next to nothing in taxes while their employees enjoy expensive public services.
If the Republicans in Carson City have their way, then the tax breaks for small businesses that were part of the tax package two years ago will be allowed to expire. Increased taxes are not what small business needs right now. The Democrats need to insist that mining pays its fair share, and this "financial crisis" would disappear.
Actually, under a voucher system, the 8 year old would probably have a better educational experience via smaller private/charter schools that deliberately target & support our best & brightest. As would our more troubled young, in schools that better addressed their needs & experiences. Just as the 19th century pardigm of the one room schoolhouse was replaced by the 20th centruy pardigm of a mass factory-like educational system, so it will be replaced by an entrepeneurial & distributive system more tailorable to the needs of the individual student. Nevada could lead the way on serious educational reform -- if we can get the bureacracy and those others invested in the failed status quo out of the way!
The Gov's proposed education policy changes -- income based vouchers, reforming the PERS system, elimination of tenure, implementation of a school grdaing system -- are a good first step towards addressing the gross disconnect between funding & performance. Before we talk any tax increase, like on mining, the system needs to be reformed.
Programs for gifteed children should not be deleted from budgets nor should health care. There is a sollution to the problems however. Several mothers who are not employed can group together and use the monies to para teach their children in the classroom and monitor their children requiring health monitoring by supplying fresh fruit snacks during morning and afternoon classes. This should not be a problem within the schools. Single parents who have unknown talent, whether male or female, do extremely well in this role as para parents in the classroom of gifted children and there is no need to downsize the budget and the use of fresh fruit snacks is often a way of solving many problems in all classrooms.
What Chunky doesn't realize is that there is plenty of money. Dow has is over 12,000 and has soared at record pace. The problem is, the tax system in Nevada relies on sales and gaming. The stuff that fluctuates too much. We need revenue balance.
@rickkorbel,
Hey,I was there too and everyone regardless of who they thought they were had been given a time limit AND were cut off when the time had been exceeded. If you couldn't get your point across succinctly in the time allotted that's not "Horsford's fault" but the problem IS crystal clear.
slick greasy brian sandoval...
would rather screw the children of nevada...
than make mining and gaming pay their fair share...
than make mining and gaming pay an amount equal to that which they pay in other jurisdictions...
slick greasy brian sandoval...
A COMPLETE AND TOTAL FRAUD!!!
slick greasy brian sandoval...
supports prostitution...
hates education...
slick greasy brian sandoval...
IS A COMPLETE AND TOTAL FRAUD!!!
there can be no doubt slick greasy brian sandoval's plan is pure bull$#!^...
on it's merits...
pure bull$#!^...
and...
it means that slick greasy brian sandoval won't have to do a damn thing for 6 years...
now...
ladies and gentlemen...
boys and girls...
i don't know if you have ever looked at slick greasy brian sandoval's resume...
but...
i don't think he has ever stayed anywhere for 6 years...
let's face facts boys and girls...
slick greasy brian sandoval is a complete and total fraud!!!
The problem is not a lack of taxes imposed and collected.....but the politicians overspending and wastefulness.
Simple as that.
Of course this is a very difficult time financially for our state. Programs that exist, and their funding, are sure to be slashed. I have a suggestion for our schools. Here is the example. In the early 1990's when I was a state employee we were at that time in a serious budget deficit. The agency that I worked for was cut to one nurse on duty for over 2,000 inmates. I had a lot of people who were diabetic, just like this one young man highlighted in the main article above. Since I was responsible for this unit, and the health and safety of all that were incarcerated within, this lead me to get knowledgeable and learn the disease and basic medical responding methods. It was extremely successful. Now, one may counter that I was not formally trained and certified. They would be correct in saying this. But when there is nothing else to rely on, a person in authority with some medical training and a whole bunch of caring can bring a potential patient to a good comfort zone that they will be alright. We seem to be left with no other alternative other than to improvise, overcome and adapt. If a former prison guard can do it, a highly educated school teacher certainly can too.
To Chunky:
You are right, the state of Nevada needs to raise more revenue. Talk of shared sacrifice means the extraordinarily wealthy need to pay their fair share.
Did you know that the average college-educated worker will not earn $2 million dollars in his or her working life? That is less than some earn in a fraction of a year. Shouldn't the rich pay their fair share?
If you want more facts relevant to this debate, google how income for middle-class Americans has stagnated for the past 30 years. This would suggest that it's not taxes that are too high, but wages that are too low.
If they would take the non-citizens' out of our state this would aleviate the problems caused by their children in classes. This would lessen the cost of the non-citizens to our state.