Bureaucrats Bully High School Kids

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

This article is a synopsis of everything that's wrong with this state.

• The NV Chief Justice goes on record favoring convictions of youthful "offenders" presumed to be innocent. More judicial misconduct.
• High school students -- who are coerced into school to begin with -- are driven into videoconference (police detention) rooms like criminal suspects to get lectured about some new BIG government law. The schools are just government re-education camps.
• Some government "woman" lawyer is permitted to *bully* innocent school boys with threats like "we'll find you!" More LGBT/Women's rights activism.
• While the private sector is *shrinking* an entirely new "cyberbullying" (a non-crime crime) legal racket is *forming*. More billable hours for lobbyists and lawyers.

Public Education CANNOT Be Reformed

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

You people who argue for a 9/12 month school year, new Board members, an interim Superintendent, a teacher/student Bill of Rights, higher/lower academic standards, etc just don't get it. Public education is a CATASTROPHE and *cannot* be reformed.

The private sector is perfectly capable of providing enough classrooms, bandwidth, mobile tutors, etc to satisfy the real demand for primary/secondary/higher education. For all tastes, pricepoints, and degrees of quality.

What's this blather about 9 months vs year-round (5 tracks)? School "years" should be variable and tracks multitudinous. Like the students the schools are supposed to serve.

1 day/wk schools. 1 hr/night schools. $10,000/yr schools. $10/wk schools. Sports schools. Drama schools. Science schools. How about a school which guarantees your child admission to an IVY or your money back! And on and on.

This is all so obvious. The only reason we haven't moved to this paradyne *decades* ago is because the Republicrats have HUGE financial stakes in continuing the status quo.

No more "one size fits all" operating hours and curriculum. No more consultants, union contracts, and vapid pedagogies.

No more political teacher performance evaluations. Everyone will know who are the good teachers are. They'll be the ones with wait lists.

No more political school performance evalutions. Everyone will know which schools are good. They'll be the ones which are expanding.

No more bond measures, court test cases and rigged, riotous (draft) board meetings.

Abolish Truancy Laws!

Originally posted in a LVRJ forum

Scott Weissinger, a school [CCSD] attendance officer

This predator is like that mean character in Chitty Bang Bang who captured and imprisoned helpless small children.

This bastard is the sort of powermonger who'd put your child in front of a firing squad for evading the draft.

This abject bounty hunter is the spiritual descendent of runaway-slave catchers.

This thug (and his colleagues) are too dumb to pass the Metro entrance exam yet they're CCSD's *most* essential employees. They keep state money coming in.

State funding is awarded through a wonkish formula based on student headcount. Absences cost. Truant officers (like Weissinger) keep the schools filled with warm bodies. The (draft) Board would soooner *burn down* the schools than fire truant officers.

We shouldn't DRAFT kids into CCSD. If they don't want to be there, or their parents don't care, it's *insane* to send truant officers out to capture them. Like MPs rounding up AWOLs.

CCSD: "One Size Fits All"

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

This "one size fits all" philosophy might work for a Ford Motor assembly line (circa 1910) but it has NO place in an education system which purports to serve a 24 hr town. If we privatized education then some enterprising fellow might decide to operate an overnight kindergarten. Wouldn't *that* be an innovation!

The system we have now is like Southwest Air scheduling all their flights in/out to/of LAS between [0730-0900]/[1430-1700]. Soon only nine months a year! Shareholders would RIOT.

A private education system would operate during hours convenient to its customers, not its employees.

Of course school "years" should be variable length. Kids learn at different rates. Of course tracks should be numerous. Why does everyone have to start/stop at the same time.

We homeschool. Our kids go on break when it's convenient for *us*, not for a bunch of union members.
We increase our kids' individual work loads and complexities when *they're* ready, not when some MA/Ed bureaucrat's scheduling chart says so.

Fund Millenium Scholarships Out of the Football Budget

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

The Legislature spends some $14M per year to fund Division 1 sports. That is, scholarships to chowderhead jocks who couldn't care LESS about education. Many of whom are from out-of-state. That's right.

Though I oppose government funding of education, if the crooked politicians want to bailout the Millenium Scholarship fund the "Intercollegiate Athletics" budget is a good place to get the money to do so.

UNLV Jock Kicked Off Team For Flunking ...

..  a drug test.

The guy was admitted to UNLV even though he couldn't spell his own name. He is majoring in University Studies. He couldn't care less about education. He probably never goes to class.

He gets dropped from the team for smoking pot?!

Maybe now he'll focus on academics.

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Ridiculous Majors at UNLV

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

"University Studies" (AKA "jockology") is a pseudo-major which exists to give academic cover to athletes who can't get through Basketweaving 101. The program has no objective standards. Its "requirements" wouldn't challenge a third grader. Even so, most jocks who declare in it can't amass enough credits to graduate.

A few years ago USA Today noted that some huge percentage of UNLV footballers were majoring it. Very embarassing to UNLV. As a result, UNLV announced it was phasing out University Studies and replacing it with yet another faux major -- "Interdisciplinary". Same program. New name.

It's almost meaningless for jocks to declare a major since such a minor percentage of them graduate -- even after 6 years. Still, "criminal Justice"? What the heck is that? Do prison guards need 4 yr degrees, too?

Physical Education? So now the 3R's stand for reading defenses, writing rosters, and adding up runs. It's just ridiculous. Wooden was an English major. Paterno was a college dropout (though majoring in Economics).

Kinesiology? Another one of those "ology" programs which sounds sophisticated but is actually quite worthless.

Physiology, Biology, Eschatology, Etiology, etc. Serious.

Kinesiology, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, etc. Not serious.

Astrology & Numerology. The next great jock majors.

UNLV Alchemy

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

₁₁₇Craponium.
₁₁₈Wastinium.
₁₁₉Spendon.

Z= 120, 121, ... A bunch of alchemists.

Not sure what the theoretical limit is to the number of protons in the nucleus, but leave it to the government to fund research to keep adding protons to create elements with 10^-77 s half-lives, while simultaneously funding research to smash protons into a zillion pieces.

Let the Tritium decay.

The job of University of Nevada Chemistry Professors is to *teach* the next generation of Nevada applied scientists. If you want to design nuclear weapons go work for Sandia.

Droput Nevada casino workers shouldn't have to pay higher taxes to maintain a SiO₂-box for educated derelicts.

UNLV Football Players Drafted by the NFL

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Wolfe earned a bachelor's degree in kinesiological sciences and is currently pursuing a master's degree in sports education leadership. Not serious.

Hawley majoring in Physical Education. Not serious.

The University of Nevada is not supposed to be a NFL training camp.

Illegals Underwhelming CCSD

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

CCSD has ~310,000 students. How many of them are illegal? 1%? 10%? 20?!

Big deal.

Keep them. Get rid of the *legal* 80%+. Save a bundle. Abolish the system altogether. Save a bigger bundle.

Farewell Rulffes

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

CCSD has *dozens* of competing constituencies. CCSD has *thousands* of regulations controlling it. The best candidate for Superintendent is someone with *political* skills.

Someone PC. Someone who can utter all the right platitudes to whichever audience s/he's in front of. Someone who can deal with the Legislature.

Yes, Rulffes is a dope, but he's well-suited for the job. I'm sorry to see him go.

Republicrats Eyeballing Your Wallet Again

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

In 2011 the governor and Legislature are projected to face a budget scenario in which expected revenue is as much as $3 billion less than projected spending.

How much government are the Republicrats planning to shove down our throats in the next biennium?

Current tax revenues are running ~$2.5B/yr, with ~$150M of that set to expire in FY '12. That means if the economy stablizes, in the next biennium old taxes (which "No new taxes!" Fibbons adores) will generate ~$4.7B. A $3B "gap" indicates that Horsefurd, Raggio and the gang are looking to spend ~$7.7B! Up from $6.9B in the current biennium. ~11% more.

Are they serious? Where is all this money going to come from? The crooked politicians are not going to find it in the Dairy Commission or the Taxicab Authority. What do the scheming politicians have up their sleeves?

Public Schools OPPOSE "Take Your Kids To Work" Day

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

The reason public school cogs oppose absences so vociferously is because state education funds are allocated based on a wonkish formula which scores school attendance.

That is why the most important employee a public school system is its truancy officer. That is why school districts fight tooth-&-nail to keep compulsory attendance laws on the books. That is why the local School Board should more accurately be called the DRAFT Board.

We homeschool. We take our kids to work every day.

Many public school teachers won't allow their kids to come to work with them.

#1) It's too dangerous.
#2) They're paying good money to send their kids to *private* schools.

Little Red School Modular

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

the district's 76 year-round schools ..

The constitutional minimum is ONE school. Attendance optional. Squeeze up to 310,000 kids into a single portable.

Teachers Who Went to Graduate School

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

I am so sick of this constant whining about underpaid teachers with advanced degrees. As though a CCSD incompetent with a Masters is worth more than an incompetent without. Academic credentials only matter in fields which are dominated by the government.

At the stove a dropout who can flip 400 burgers/hr is worth twice as much as a doctor who can only flip 200.

Livengood's Fuzzy Accounting

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum
[Livengood] kept [UAZ Athletic] department in the black

For college sports you can't really talk about black/red in a way that makes business sense. How can you claim to make a "profit" when your *star* employees are officially unpaid? Or is involuntary servitude legal in Arizona?

How can you claim to make a profit when you don't even make a good-faith attempt to account for your expenses? For example, the cost of tossing admission/grading standards. Athletic Dept accountants never factor in the cost of the numerous basketweaving departments which need to be maintained to give jocks academic cover, like Sociology, Physical Education, Sports Management, etc. Those real costs are conveniently shifted to social "science" college budgets. The old shell game.

FYI, that "$28M subsidy" figure is over the biennium.

Sorry, but UNLV will not renounce federal funding. Title IX *stays*.

Eliminate UNLV Sports

Originally posted in a LVRJ forum

$280K/yr AD Livengood said: A good development person [like its $109K/yr ex-head fundraiser, Bill Brady] can quadruple what you pay them just because they're that good at raising money.

This outrage cannot pass unconfronted.

When a beggar asks you to donate to a charity (like UNLV) you might expect him to be uncompensated. After all, you want all of the money to go directly to the nominal beneficiaries (ie students). Then you find out that "Whoa!" The money is used to pay the $100K+ salary of the hustler.

I've actually met a couple of jokers like that. They were full-time fundraisers for some of those BIG charities you probably heard of. Each was making ~$400K! That's right.

UNLV is like all the other big charities out there. Probably ~96% of its charitable support goes to pay for executive salaries, wine-&-cheese parties, and Lake Tahoe chalets. Virtually NONE of the money goes to *real* students who truly need assistance. The "charity" is reserved for athletic scholarships for jocks who couldn't care less about education.

Sorry. UNLV accepts federal funds. It can't escape Title IX. The cost of Men's football is WOMEN'S football.

UNLV Athletics Dept Needs Remedial Math

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

UNLV [Athletics] estimates that it will end its fiscal year June 30 with $26.06 million in revenues and $27.99 million in expenses.

Those budget figures DON'T add up. It's not rounding errors. That $26M revenue figure isn't even close. Even so, the $280K Athletic Director is employing fuzzy accounting.

Sports boosters never factor in the ridiculous departments (lke Sports this-&-that) and degree programs (like University Studies) which need to be maintained in order to provide jocks with academic cover, nor the compromised admission standards (non-existent, really) required to get the chowderhead jocks in the door in the first place, nor the complete distraction to Admnistration and disruption of what should be a tranquil, ivy tower environment.

When you look at how UNLV prioritizes (ie the $1M hoops coach and $450K football coach) you could conclude that UNLV exists to play BIG sports. Academics is just a pretext. The true cost of UNLV sports is closer to the entire cost of the University.

University of NV for Free!

Originally posted in a LVRJ forum

There are ~450,000 kids in Nevada K-12 (public+private). Assume, 35,000 enter 1st grade with 25% attrition. That means ~25,000 HS diplomas awarded here each yr.

The University of Nevada (now UNR) was established as a small A&M school. It was endowed with capital sufficient to make further taxpayer obligation to it  unnecessary. Basically all of UNR's applied science students should be getting free rides or else paying just nominal tuition. That's right.

UNR's endowment is on the order of $200M. The trust manager should be able to yield 5% -- $10M/yr. [I doubt that highly paid, politically connected nincompoop returns even *half* of that]. 1/2 gets paid out to cover operating expenses (the rest reinvested).

I could argue for much a lower number, but assume operating expenses are $10,000 per student. That means you could enroll ~500 students TUITION FREE. UNLV is similar. Consolidate its endowment and science programs at UNR and you can support ~1,000 students (250 per class).

The top 1% of NV high school graduates would be eligible.

If our political constituencies object we could modify this structure slightly. Reserve 500 seats for women, 10 for ethnic minorities, another 100 for jocks, etc.

Ronald McDonal For CCSD Superintendent

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

It doesn't matter who replaces Rulffes. NOTHING will change. Why should a bureaucracy controlled by Rogers or Rhoust be any better than one controlled by Rulffes?

On a personal level, Rogers is quite a demagogue. Someone less pompous (and cheaper) would be better.

My personal favorite is a poster named 'Jack' who sometimes lurks in CCSD-related fora. My second choice is Ronald McDonald. He's great with kids, has enterprise experience, and he is already familiar with McEducation products.

Hey CCSD Parents: Demand A Revenue Share!

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

CCSD makes >$10,000 per kid. Students receive little education value in return.

Hey >20 parents from Glen Taylor, Twitchell and Vanderburg. Threaten to pull your kids OUT of CCSD unless it revenue shares. The way it already does with its unions. In the aggregate, over your kids' dubious CCSD careers, they represent >$1.2M in state revenue for CCSD. It can't afford to lose you. It'll find a way to accomodate you.

Administrators Make Money For Public Schools

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

A lot of people are going to post loud comments about cutting administrators. You folks don't understand the economics of public education.

CCSD has *thousands* of regulations it needs to comply with. You can't expect teachers to know them all. Only a small army of $100K+ bureaucrats can do the job.

Then you have all the non-teaching positions which were built into the grant applications. You can't eliminate them without violating -- penalties apply -- the terms of the grant. Besides, those "cost-plus" positions actually make money for the district. Fire them and the "profits" go too.

Then you have all the political hires whose jobs serve to curry favor with state legislators and large voting constituencies.

So you see, Administrators are valuable. *Teachers* are burden.

Teachers have expensive and inflexible employment contracts. State funding is per *student*, not per teacher. Fewer teachers reduce CCSD expenses without reducing state funding. Teachers are susceptible to making controversial statements and having illicit contact with students, which exposes CCSD to costly lawsuits and political embarrassment. And finally, many teachers are just incompetent. Get rid of them now en masse and avoid lengthy, expensive individual employment discrimination suits.

School Volunteering

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

CCSD receives > $10,000 per "normal" student per year, including debt service and PERS. I think NPRI calculates ~$12K.

That private school is on the high end. Volunteering/fundraising is also required! I don't know about $/punch but I'm sure if CCSD spent that much its incidence of violence wounldn't *diminish* -- not even if all the additional money went toward hiring extra security. That private school simply attracts a higher class of kid.

Parents who use CCSD should be the ones volunteering. For all the good that would do. I know a bright lady, a former full-time K-12 teacher, who volunteers regularly at her boy's school. Let me be clear. This lady spends a LOT of time in her son's classroom.

During recent parent teacher conference the teacher suggested that the boy get tested for a learning disability. He doesn't read in reading group. THE BOY CAN READ TWO YEARS ABOVE GRADE LEVEL. The lady is so disgusted she has asked my wife about homeschool options!

CCSD For Union Convenience

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Private busineses operate during hours most convenient to their customers. Employee scheduling and compensation are adjusted accordingly. Nobody cares.

Government control of education means that even decisions which should be decided by objective measures of customer response -- ie how many students sign up for midnight chemistry -- get *politicized*. The paramount focus on customer convenience gets lost in the debate about air conditioning, bussing, union work rules and PERS.

It would be like Southwest scheduling all their flights to LAS to arrive between 0745-0930 and depart between 1445-1730. Shareholders would *revolt* if management was paralyzed over the foolish question of whether such obviously rigid scheduling should operate for 9 months or year round.

ESL Students In Your Kids' School

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

a majority of students are limited English speakers who come from low-income families

Recently my wife received an emergency phone call from a PhD scientist friend who was leading a group of 3 kids (including his own son) in some sort of public middle school homework group science project. Our friend is absolutely *dynamite* with kids, passionate about science, and even teaches part-time at a University.

So what's the problem?

Neither the two other kids nor their PARENTS (who were also in the room) understood English. My wife, who speaks Spanish but is not a science person, had to spend two hours providing technical translation! Why are all of these kids in the same class?

This was probably the last straw for my friend. His small, somewhat geeky but very brainy son is constantly bullied at school. Teacher/principal do nothing. The kid is bored to tears by unchallenging work.

Next year, he'll be going to a $22,000/yr *private* school. They're holding a spot for him.

Public School Regulations

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Changes in school calendars are currently based on a complex formula based on class sizes and at least two years of demographic patterns in a school zone

There are *thousands* of school regulations. Some of them (like this "complex formula") are just silly. Many are outright *destructive* (like compulsory attendance). Rulffes' replacement is going to have to ensure compliance with every one of them -- or else hire lawyers to seek exemptions. Public education is CATASTROPHE and CANNOT be reformed.

We homeschool. We never close.

Carrying lunch trays in the wind. Really.

One School Size Fits All

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

I know that not everyone can afford to pay $25,000/yr to send junior to Kindergarten. The best way to educate the masses is to get the government completely OUT of education. Almost overnight a vibrant, quality, efficient *private* education industry would emerge. For all tastes and pricepoints.

$25/wk schools. Drama schools. Gun schools. Green schools. On and on. NCLB!

The problem is not that people like me don't care about other people's children. It's that parents don't care enough about their OWN children. If they did they wouldn't leave K-12 in the hands of bureaucracies like CCSD.

All the objective evidence shows that the public school kids are being ruined. You public education advocates should be honest enough to admit that it's not "for the children". It's really about the pride you take in feeling morally superior.

Nevada Taxpayers Making Hauck Rich

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

The trip was organized by Koeberle & Associates, a Pittsburgh-based sports and entertainment marketing agency.

Division 1 makes money for a lot of people. Hauck is making ~$450K. TV broadcast networks sell millions in advertising. Then there are all the sports marketing related firms (like Koeberle) which collect nice fees from negotiating sports/endorsement contracts, merchandising, etc. The football players (officially) work for free. They're not called "dumb jocks" for nothing.

Why do Nevada residents continue to support this abuse?