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MUTH’S TRUTHS
Time to Remove Kirner’s “Trigger” Lock,
for the Children
In a
recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, columnist Dan Henninger declared that the ongoing failure of inner-city
schools – in which students are passed through the system “without the skills
to do much more than achieve a minimal level of lifetime earnings” – “remains
the greatest moral catastrophe in the political life of the United States.”
Personally,
I think Mr. Henninger is sugar-coating it.
Henninger
was writing about the future of public charter schools in New York City, noting
that the Democrat candidate for mayor, Bill
de Blasio, “under pressure from the city’s teachers union, will start
demanding rent payments from public charter schools that now operate rent-free
in the same buildings occupied by traditional public schools.”
Apparently
New York City public charter schools, which are public schools funded with
public taxpayer dollars, are allowed to operate in public school buildings, which,
of course, makes all the sense in the world.
Alas,
no such provision allowing public charter schools to operate in public school
buildings exists in Nevada, which, of course, makes no sense whatsoever.
It also
goes a long way towards explaining why there are so few charter schools open and
operating in Nevada despite a public perception to the contrary. Indeed, in a dinner conversation with
Democrat congressional candidate Erin Bilbray-Kohn recently, she ventured that
Nevada had around 150 charter schools in operation.
Actually,
it’s just 35.
By
contrast, in neighboring Arizona there are well over 526 public charter
schools.
And
need I remind everyone that when it comes to education quality, Nevada ranks,
if not dead last, pretty darned near dead last.
Think that’s just a coincidence?
And don’t
try blaming it on our Hispanic kids. I’ve
been to Phoenix. Recently. And, son of a gun, a lot of Hispanic kids
live there, too!
And
my friend Dr. Ben Chavis has never
had a problem providing a superior education to Hispanic kids in his public
charter schools in Oakland’s inner city.
By
the way; that multi-million dollar ELL program being promoted by Gov. Brian Sandoval and State Sen. Moderate Mike Roberson? That ain’t gonna fix the problem either…but
it WILL hire more teacher union members.
Fact
is the greatest impediment to opening and operating more public charter schools
here in Nevada is the humongous start-up costs involved in finding a building
in which to operate the school. I
know. I’ve considered opening one here
myself. Can’t afford it.
While
taxpayers pay for the buildings used by our crappy regular public schools, public
charter school operators need to fund their own building acquisition and/or leasing
costs. Which is insanely expensive. Which is one reason why we have so few public
charter schools. And why so many new public
charter schools are being forced to open as “virtual” charter schools, in which
students participate online from home instead of attending a brick-and-mortar
campus.
Granted,
a recent change in Nevada law has set up a program for lending money to
start-up charter schools, but that’s still not good enough. Loans have to be repaid, ultimately with
taxpayer dollars anyway. So why can’t
vacant or underperforming regular public school buildings be converted into a
public charter school?
Indeed,
a bill to allow just that, sponsored by Nevada State Sen. Aaron Ford (D-Las Vegas), which would have allowed the parents of
an underperforming public school to vote to convert it to a public charter
school, passed in the state Senate this year.
Unfortunately
and stupidly, it was killed in the state Assembly by Republicans - foolishly misled
by Assemblyman Randy Kirner (R-Reno)
- who voted against this “parental trigger” bill because Kirner claimed,
wrongly, that it violated the state prohibition against using a public school
building for a public charter school.
Republicans
are their own worst enemy sometimes.
Whether
or not the state law prohibiting the use of public buildings to house a public
charter school would also prohibit “parental trigger” conversions isn’t the
point. The point is if we want more charter
schools in Nevada – and we’d better if we ever hope to actually improve education
here – we need to completely remove this ridiculous prohibition in state law.
Public charter schools are public schools which should be
allowed to use public school buildings just like the other public schools. Is there a legislator out there who cares
enough about the education of our children to propose removing Assemblyman
Kirner’s “trigger” lock?
RALSTON RETORTS!
Shortly
after the death of liberal Assemblywoman Peggy
Pierce (D-Las Vegas) was announced on Thursday morning, Jon Ralston, Nevada’s #2 liberal
blogger, shamelessly tried to exploit her death to pimp his favorite tax hike
by tweeting the following…
What
a dick.
Also
today…
See
more Ralston Retorts at www.RalstonRetorts.com
NEVADA NEWS & VIEWS
FIRST FRIDAY HAPPY HOUR
Next
month’s First Friday Happy Hour will be on Friday, November 1 from 5:00 – 7:00
pm at the Blue Martini in Town Square on the south end of the Strip in Las
Vegas. Our VIP guest-of-honor will be
our 2014 Courage under Fire award
recipient, Amanda Collins.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“While
much attention has been placed on the role of the health care law and its
connection with the continuing resolution, the current debate is actually much
larger than the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The cost of the health care law,
originally estimated at $940 billion over 10 years when first passed, has
ballooned to $1.93 trillion over the first decade of full implementation. With
our national debt approaching $17 trillion, this massive law is but one symptom
of our greater problem: unrestrained government spending.” – Rep.
Joe Heck (R-Nevada)
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