Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Funding cuts won’t improve schools

Realistic proposals for solving either Nevada’s budget or educational system’s problems are very few. However, here are a few things on which we can all agree:

1. Various studies have shown that Nevada, including Las Vegas, has one of the least educated citizenry — I believe Las Vegas ranks last of all major urban centers — in the U.S.

2. Like their parents, many students, likely because many of them grow up in poverty, don’t graduate from high school or develop the study skills needed to advance to higher education. In test scores, graduation rates and percent pursuing postsecondary studies, Nevada’s kids, including those from Las Vegas, rank near the bottom or dead last.

3. Countless studies have shown that in our highly technical 21st century world economy, that economic success, measured by lifetime earnings of an individual and of the prosperity of the community as a whole, highly correlates with one’s level of education. Because of this and facts listed above, the economic viability of our community, particularly any efforts to diversify away from gaming and mining, is in question.

4. Reducing education spending from their diminished, underfunded levels for any students — elementary, secondary or postsecondary — will only exacerbate items 1, 2 and 3.

5. Thus, as far as the local and state’s education budgets are concerned, the problem is one of insufficient revenue leading to insufficient funding.

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