Sunday, April 10, 2011

Chicken Little Is Invading The Las Vegas Sun And CCSD


Just like clock work, it is another day and another sob story within the confines of the Las Vegas Sun about how the cut backs are going to hurt schools and teachers.

In the first article, it talks about Iverson Elementary School, which is located in the far east side of the Las Vegas Valley. http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/apr/10/10-fewer-teachers-crushing/

The Sun and principal is complaining that the school has about 750 students, has 35 teachers and may lose 10 teachers. Of course, this is a tentative number because no one knows for sure how many teachers we may lose. We don't know this because the legislators have not sent a spending bill to the governor to sign. We don't know how much, if any concessions the unions are going to give up. So, any mention of this is just an exercise of making tear jerking stories for the media, like the Sun, who laps it up.

Of course, this story doesn't mention that Iverson has 17 other teachers, for a total of 42 teaching positions at the school. The principal, rightly or wrongly, decided that an art or music teacher was more important than a core elementary school teacher. The principal decided that art and music was more important than smaller class sizes. It's a tough choice granted, but that is the choice the principal made.

Yes, education is going to be hit hard in budget cuts, but education is also the biggest expenditure by the state and labor costs are the biggest expense in education. So guess what is going to be cut.

In the second article, the story is about teachers and the cuts they will take or potentially take.


It talks about the potential pay cuts and lay offs teachers will have to endure.

I have mixed feelings on this subject. Teachers are well payed, especially compared to other private sector jobs in Las Vegas. However, as a teacher, I am pissed that we would have to take a pay cut when there is so much waste in CCSD. When I see so many non-teaching professionals who aren't even in the schools, why should I take a pay cut for this waste? When I see schools with 13 secretaries or more, I see waste. When I see CCSD administration and school board take care of themselves first, then I get pissed about taking a pay cut. When I see Basic High School's (and who knows how many more schools keep their lights on) football lights on each evening, I see waste. When I see teachers who have coffee pots, microwaves, charging their I-pods and cell phones and refrigerators in their classroom without a legitimate reason, I see waste.

So, please spare me the sob stories. I've seen them all.

But of course, the liberal commentators on these articles show their completely ignorance. From the usual playbook, they say tax the rich, tax mining, tax this tax that. Of course, what they forget to mention, that most of these require a change in the state constitution. Further, when you challenge them on their posts, they just ignore you and just write another talking point post.

Now, we are getting phone calls about the spending cuts by our kid's principal using CCSD equipment. Nothing like politicking using CCSD resources.

So, right now, the Sky Is Falling crowd flooding the pages of the Las Vegas Sun followed by The Sky Is Falling Crowd in CCSD.

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