Half-full or Half Empty? How about Broken?

Yesterday hundreds of teachers in Nevada were told that their jobs were gone. Not because they were incompetent or violating any one of school regulations. They were fired because the State of Nevada considered politics more important than education.

Nevada’s Governor, Jim Gibbons, an ex-fighter pilot and by training a geologist, made a campaign promise back in 2006 when he ran for that seat. He promised that he would not raise a single tax. Of course when he made that promise the economy was accelerating skyward and houses that originally sold fore $140,000 were being appraised at twice that amount. Just prior to his run, the state has issued a tax refund to nearly every citizen because of a massive surplus. And then the bubble burst.

As an Assemblyman, I saw the public face the legislature shows when they are on stage and I saw the other one they reveal only behind the scenes. Very few, Democrats or Republican, actually care whether or not the succeeding generations can read or write. What they care about is whether or not their next campaign is funded, and right after that, whether or not they can takes the reins of power by attaining a majority. Education? It’s not even in the top ten. To make matters worse, some on the GOP side actually consider public school to be dangerous for children. Not because of the prospect of drive-by shootings, gang violence or school bullies, but because of what they think may be taught. To them, every public school teacher is a flaming liberal and actively pushes the communist agenda. Nothing could be further from the truth, but these people live with the persona of the J. Edgar Hoover fifties imbedded within their persona. To them the Berlin Wall never fell and the Red Menace is running rampant through the halls of academia. I know dozens of teachers who supported Ron Paul and one of them is an official in the teachers’ union.

If that attitude weren’t so tragically cataclysmic, it would be laughable. The education glass in Nevada isn’t half empty or half full; it has fallen to the ground and shattered. The Governor is quite satisfied to allow million-dollar gifts to private citizens, to allow the Senate Majority Leader to violate the state constitution, ethics regulations and Senate Rules in order to grant waivers to campaign donors, and to claim a 300 million dollar rainy day fund does not exist, but he won’t spend a penny to save a teacher’s job. The mining industry pays only a half percent a year in taxes. Gaming, the other financial giant in this state pays less than 7 percent. The average worker and homeowner pays more than twice that, and many of them are teachers. What is wrong with this picture?

In Southern Nevada we pay the Superintendent of Schools over ten times what a beginning teacher is paid and he does less than half the work. The School District administration offices are a literal marble-lined palace while some schools have sections that have been listed as unsafe for occupation. The media is no help. One story on our local TV news stated that the average teacher in Nevada makes $52,000 a year. They got that figure by taking beginning teacher pay and adding it to what a PhD with 30 years of seniority would make and dividing by 2. What the report said was a lie. Most teachers make under 40 thousand a year and many are on food stamps while their principals are dining on fillet. Most teachers work over 60 hours a week while their principals may sometimes get up to 40. The 3 month vacation is another lie. The students get that. Teachers still have to work on preparing for the next school year, or did you think those lesson plans appeared by magic?

The system is broken. The position of teacher should be one of the most coveted jobs available. They should be teaching in palaces, not broken down portables. They should be making 6 figures a year, not the administration, and we should consider education to be as important to this country as National Defense. Because, if we don’t, we can kiss this nation good bye.