Mike: Answer the question,if you can, that the Sun and RJ refuse to answer or comment on: Why has the local press hidden from the story of Penn State and a child sexual abuse scandal? For what reason has the local press been so silent on this stunning and shocking news of a national university with a great reputation? Why? This story has been all over the national news but very, very little about it in the two local papers. Why? I am sure other communities with a local university or college wonders about its own moral an ethical integrity in sports. The NCAA certainly does; The Federal Government certainly does. But no one in Las Vegas does? Realy, Mike...think about it a bit. Then, answer the question!Thanks for at least making a comment on my statement. At least one person in Las Vegas is awake this morning!!!!!

It amazes me that the national sports story of the year, the Penn State scandal, has been silenced and is non existent for readers of the RJ and the LV Sun. Why? Who put the curb on this national story locally? There is no bigger story in sports than this scandal to date yet it has barely been presented by these papers. If it were not for TV sports no one in this community would have known that it occurred in the first place. Why the silence? Why th coverup? This is beginning to smell in and of itself...something is not right... Who is afraid of what as far as a
possible local UNLV sports scandal?Is there something suspicious or fishy going on the Maryland Parkway campus this is being hiddenf rom the public? Hmmm? Makes people wonder doesn't it?

The state of Nevada can't afford the universities and colleges it now has in operation so how is it going to afford a medical school? We have a half baked dental school and law school which are about as promising of full success as a dog house without a roof. The Sandoval regime has cut to the bare bone funding of K-12 schools as well as our local higher education institutions. Let's get real about a full blown medical school. Nice idea, but in Nevada it will never fly. This state can't afford to hire the best teachers and professors, only high paid and rewarded coaches. Dumb idea, waste of time, it is time to move on to another subject!

The events of recent days at Penn State are not totally unlike UNLV's moral and ethical lapses involving the academic quality and eligibility of UNLV athletes in past decades. Recruiting of players who were questionable as academically prepared for college level course work was just as morally and ethically wrong. In those days basketball and other athletes where promoted by coaches as 'scholar athletes' when some were barely capable of reading Dick and Jane primers, Some could barely utter a sentence without the phrase "You know, man"you know!" The rate of graduation for UNLV athletes in those days was very dismal. The grandiose dreams and plans of promoting UNLV athletics with minimal concern for maintaining quality enrollment standards in those earlier days earned UNLV a national reputation as a school of questionable and sometimes laughable academic standing. This nightmare at UNLV is being reversed and gaining in national prestige and reputation as a school of excellent academic standards.

If you really want to do an in depth analysis of this district begin with the central office administration and the extreme overload of administrative positions. Thee has to be something wrong with a school district need a phone directory, mini volume, of names and phone numbers. Why do we have to have so many make work, paper shufflers in our district and schools? Why do schools need more than 1 principal and 1-2 vice principals on 6 figure salaries. EXAMPLE Why do secondary schools need an administrator, 6 figure salaried nerd in charge of activities and sports,i.e athletic director. In the old days the head coach of FB or BB was the athletic director PERIOD!

It is time legislatures give classroom teachers full authority to determine their grading standards and other teaching matters like standards for homework assignments, the type and amount of homework, standards for achieving specific grades, attendance, tardiness, behavior,etc. It is time to stop blaming classroom teachers for every conceivable ill in education and make students and their parents much more responsible for the education they are given. Education is not free and it is not a free lunch. With the opportunity for a 'free education' goes responsibility for parent and student-learners. It is time to make education mean something being the source of jokes, demeaning comments and slander from the anti-public education fanatics. Eliminate the trouble makers and those who disrupt, interrupt and refuse to participate cooperatively in learning. Stop coddling those who interfere with true learning in schools. Stop operating schools like they are free day-care centers for the disruptive and disobedient students. Make discipline as important a factor in our schools and competent teachers and graduation exit exams.

This district has had difficulty attracting and regaining teachers in math, science, English and computer tech courses in the past. These so called reform bills will make Nevada even less attractive to all teachers. Blatant killing of seniority and eliminating any tenure will be Pandora's box of both gifts and curses for the district. The so-called 'merit pay reward system' based on total improvement of a school will do nothing to make teaching better or improve learning of students in our school district. Just because the district can now eliminate the older, more expensive salaried teachers does not mean that education is going to improve overnight; far from it, the experience of the older cadre will lost and difficult to replace, if not impossible. No, we will not see higher graduation rates, improvement in state competency exams, fewer drop outs. The latter is also dependent upon the students themselves and their parents or guardians. Teachers alone do not make a school district.

At one time there was a plan to build an enclosed amusement park on or near the Boulder highway. What happened there? Zilch! These will not work in the heat of Las Vegas. Why do outdoor restaurant cafes fare so poorly in Las Vegas? The Heat, stupid, it is the heat! Why not build an outdoor Alaska theme park complete with glaciers giant snow drifts? Simulated whale hunts in a simulated Arctic Sea? Imagine dog sled races in July? Why not? It sounds just as logical as giant Ferris Wheel in 115 degree heat and humidity. The dummies, shysters, con artists and fantasy dreamers never cease to amaze me in the many ways they try to con people out of there investment monies. This is just like Oscar Goodman's fantisy dream of a major league baseball or other sport stadium near I-15 on the strip...

This whole thing about a giant ferris wheel and amusement park on the strip is all smoke and flatulence. This like so many other such schemes is bound to fail before the first rivet goes into the giant wheel. The money moguls now running Las Vegas have long forgotten what made Las Vegas great in the first place. This was an adult entertainment capital that offered fun and excitement for adults; it was never envisioned as an amusement park for children. The thing that attracted people to Las Vegas was nothing more than the simple logic of: Cheap lodging, inexpensive and plentiful quality food, great and inexpensive non stop entertainment. Profits were garnered from the games of chance offered at each resort. What money was lost on great meals and drinks was overbalanced by the games of chance. Yest, Italian mobsters, the "Mafia" had their hand in all aspects of Las Vegas but God knows people were treated as welcome and greatly valued guests. The current breed of coiffured, richly dressed and MBA graduates have forgotten or truly never knew about the real Las Vegas. This amusement park plan is doomed before it gets off the ground. Go back to what made Vegas so attractive and offer people something valuable

What is needed is a plan to hold students and parents more responsible for the education they receive. What is needed is a plan to make grades meaningful and not a joke by backing teachers as they set the standards for achievement in a classroom, not the administrators, parents or individual students. What has happened in so many schools is that "the minimum becomes the maximum" expectation when it comes to grading. The politically correct climate governing the education of children in this district for the past decades has lowered the value and meaning of letter grades to the point that we now have dozens of Valedictorians and Salutetorians each graduation season. An "A" grade today is in many cases the equivalent of a "C" grade in the decades preceeding the 1960's. Every student is above average and potential college material while common sense (lacking in the CCSD) dictates this is statistically impossible. Final course grades at the secondary level should be determined only by actual achievement on state mandated competency exams; it should be very similar to that required for AP courses; whatever a student scores on the final exam is the grade that is recorded for college entrance. Every secondary school core subject course should thus be graded, with other courses,i.e. P.E., Health, Art, shop classes,etc,merely receiving satisfactory or unsatisfactory achievement ratings.