This is not the time to throw our children's education and their futures "under the bus". It's time to demand that our Legislators step up and enact equitable and long-range tax policies. This requires a broad-based tax initiative that provides revenue from ALL profitable Nevada businesses, including an increase in gaming taxes. The solution it NOT to cut education at any level in Nevada as we already rank below any reasonable standard of academic measurement. Nevadans get what they pay for and investment in education is well worth the price paid for our State's long-term economic growth and the continued upward mobility of the residents of our communities.

Nevada is one of the few States where businesses utilize our infrastructure and workers, and then take their non- or low-taxed profits to invest in ventures outside our State. What better time - during an economic downtown - to "fix" our inequitable tax system and create a reasonable and consistent revenue stream for not only education at all levels, but our roads, parks, community living spaces that add to the quality of life in our communities.

For our workforce to compete in a global economy requires the reshaping of our agrarian-based school model to one that meets the demands of a 21st-Century world. Nevadans need to support public and private initiatives which will insure that our workforce will not be marginalized or obsolete in the decades ahead. Despite economic woes, leadership is needed at the legislature and in business to plan Nevada's future.