Las Vegas Weekly

[Need to know]

Cutting class

We’ll need more than a Band-Aid to fix Nevada’s education system woes.

Finally, state leaders get bold on education! After all, we’re 51st in the nation in “students’ chance of success”—boldness might be called for? And so, the panel assembling Nevada’s bid for federal Race to the Top school funds actually acknowledged our low ranking in the application—“for boldness,” said one official, who, the R-J reported, “stressed the need for a narrative that would capture the attention of the grant evaluators.” At last, leaders willing to challenge the attention spans of grant evaluators! Bold! Here we come, 50th ranking!

Then again, next year the state’s budget shortfall will land with a $3 billion thud, surely meaning more cuts.

Did you see Channel 10’s Nevada Week in Review the other night? (No, you didn’t.) It gathered education officials to jawbone about What Must Be Done. The answer, of course, is Fix the Problem, which might require reforming Nevada’s tax structure and ... well, at a certain point they started speaking in common sense instead of libertarian, and never mind that our struggling school system chases away plenty of business—that’s just not a narrative that captures the attention of our leaders. They’re too busy boldly fending off taxes. Meanwhile, budget cuts are forcing UNLV to cut its educational leadership program. Hmm. (Full disclosure: My wife is a school principal, so you can see why I’m peeved.)