CCSD: One HUGE Conflict-of-Interest

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Public education is a *political* institution. It's all about

• Retainers to politically connected law firms.
• Lucrative union contracts.
• Lawsuits for shysters.
• Sinecures for friends.

CCSD is a HUGE government bureaucracy. It has to satisfy *dozens* of competing special interest groups. CCSD is one BIG conflict of interest. Teaching the 3R's -- if that mission ever existed -- gets completely lost in all the politicking.

Besides, the true constituency for education fled to the private schools long ago.

Those of you who believe that CCSD is about "the kids" need look no further than all the ridiculous, self-interested unions which fight tooth-&-nail to keep their good things going. And this is just the stuff that we can see.

The sort of crooked deals which go on among Legislators, Board Members, BIG political donors (representing special interests in construction, finance, textbooks, food service, etc), in expensive restaurants here in LV, up in Carson City, and even at exclusive tropical resorts, I can only imagine.

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.

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.

Patronage Education

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

School board members say the Clark County School District will suffer if legislators take away funds used to make small capital improvements throughout the district.

Public education is used as a pretext to:

• impose tax increases (ie government services tax) to pay for *other* programs (bait-&-switch)
• reward politically connected bond salesmen
• enrich politically connected construction contractors

Recall CCSD's Board!

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Replace CCSD's (draft) Board of Education (idiots) with any board you want. That of Berkshire (Warren Buffett), Apple (Steve Jobs), Wynn; you name it. What difference would it make?

Answer: ZERO.

Whoever they pick as Superintendent would still have THOUSANDS of government regulations to comply with. The best any Board can do is hire politicians like Rulffes, Garcia, and Guinn.

You folks who disagree just don't get it. Public education is a CATASTROPHE and CANNOT be reformed.

School Committees: Political Propoganda Factories

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Board member Edwards said (something like) school committees -- on sex education, zoning, bond oversight and school naming -- are subject to the law because they were formed by the School Board.

Here we go again. Public education is a *political* institution. (Draft) Board members use it to make political statements, such as

• "Make love not war!" (sex education committee)
• "Honor our Vets!" [make war not love?] (school naming committee)
• "Wall $t bailouts good!" (bond oversight committee)
• "Downtown Redevelopment!" (zoning committee)

The education committee meets Mon thru Fri at your closest private school.

CCSD School Names

Originally posted in a LVRJ forum

Many LVRJ commenters are upset that the CCSD Board has apparently not done enough to honor Vets by naming buildings, facilities, etc after them. Skool naming is a completely ridiculous political goal, with no practical benefit to education except maybe to buy off support from Veterans groups.

Why Public Schools Exist

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Public education in this state was set up as a "safety net". The constitutional minimum is one little red schoolhouse per district (18 statewide). Attendance was optional by default. Yet

• veterans want it to build memorials
• union members want it to make jobs
• football fanatics want it to score touchdowns
• consultants and municipal bond underwriters want it to generate fees
• (Draft) Board members want it to make "statements"
• and on and on and on

Public education is a *political* institution.

The special interests should save your political activism for your private clubs or RJ Forums.

*Public* schools should do one thing and one thing only. Teach the 3R's. Let me know when CCSD figures out how to do that.

CCSD's Good Students Are Being Cheated

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Many students achieve in SPITE of CCSD. The *typical* student is being horribly cheated. Unfortunately, he won't realize it until he struggles with more rigorous college programs or has to compete in the workplace against those who were better prepared.

You can blame CCSD's problems on the (Draft) Board if you like. And it's true. They *are* a bunch of idiots. But what do you think would happen if you replaced them with the Directors of Warren Buffett's firm?

Not much.

CCSD would *still* have to comply with all these regulations covering attendance, finance, testing, discrimination, Title X/X+1/X+2..., and on and on and on.

They could never find (much less recruit) a Superintendent capable of satisfying all the legalities and political constituencies, who could also deliver excellent student performance. Not even with a compensation package worth $100M per year. The best *anyone* can do is to hire politicians like Rulffes and Garcia.

Meet The New Board. Same As the Old Board

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

You can blame CCSD's problems on the (Draft) Board if you like. And it's true. They *are* a bunch of idiots. But what do you think would happen if you replaced them with the Directors of Warren Buffett's firm?
Not much.

CCSD would *still* have to comply with all these regulations covering attendance, finance, testing, hiring, affirmative action, diversity, naming, harassment, Title X/X+1/X+2..., and on and on and on.

They could never find (much less recruit) a Superintendent capable of satisfying all the legalities and political constituencies, who could also deliver excellent student performance. Not even with a compensation package worth $100M per year. The best *anyone* can do is to hire politicians like Rulffes and Garcia.

Ex-CCSD Employee Hired Back As Busybody

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Billie Rayford, the associate superintendent who oversees empowerment schools, said her staff did not have the time to do the work that McCormick-Lee will be doing.

That is because her staff is too busy overseeing implementation of the Cat 5 Hurricane Contingency Plan filed by the Assistant Deputy Coordinator for Climate Emergencies. Freedom from busybody interference -- from the likes of McCormick-Lee -- is what the "empowerment" program was supposed to be about in the first place.

As Aldous Huxley wrote, an experiment is a failure only if it does not test the hypothesis in an objective way. We already knew how a school would operate under minimial CCSD involvement. It's called PRIVATE education. But that's not why this "experiment" was a failure. It's because CCSD couldn't give up control even for a test specifically designed for that purpose.

Don't bother voting out any of those powermonger clowns. Their replacements would be just as bad. They really should be called the "Draft" Board, in that they *force* kids (who have better things to do) to show up.

Hey CCEA: do us a favor and STRIKE!

PLAN Anti-capitalism

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

[PLAN] said an earlier study for his organization found that a 6 percent personal income tax on people earning more than $200,000 a year would bring in $1.1 billion a year.

We could have small government in this state for only $80M/yr. Mining taxes plus 2-3 weeks of sales taxes would cover it. This state has a somewhat regressive tax structure, but a highly destructive *spending* structure.

PLAN is a BIG government extremist group. That is why so many prominent state Democrats contribute to it.

CCSD Board of Indoctrination

Originally posted on a LVRJ forum

The Board of Ed is a *political* institution. Members use is as a platform to make political statements, like:

• Celebrate diversity! (by hiring ex-Super Carlos Garcia)
• Honor our Veterans! (by naming schools after them)
• Seperate is *not* equal! (by closing for MLK Birthday)
• Italians were colonialists! (by opening on Columbus Day)
• Tolerance for alternative lifestyles! (by staging musicals like Rent)
• Make love not war! (by teaching sex ed)
• Make war not Love! (by letting Army recruiters on campus and teaching abstinence)
• Big government is good! (by ever-larger funding requests)

Draft Board of Education

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Board members are just powermongers. It should be called the "Draft Board". CCSD DRAFTS kids into the schools.

Board of Football Boosters

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Bill Gates spends his *own* money to make his products as good as they can be. His Board is composed of software and financial experts who have large personal financial stakes in the success of M$ products.

CCSD is run by a professional bureaucrat who gets paid whether the kids learn to read or not. The district is run by a bunch of bureaucrats whose primary concerns are satisfying political consitutencies for school naming, diversity, football, and drama.

If education was a completely PRIVATIZED service provided by experts with large personal stakes in its success, the kids would actually learn something. The Board should be limited to approving lyrics for school fight songs.

CCSD Board Of Chimps

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

The CCSD Board is a bunch of clowns. They remind of that that chotzkee with the three chimpanzees "see no evil .." They're just a bunch of power mongers -- the sort of folks who used to sit on DRAFT boards. These politically correct imbeciles will only choose bureaucrats like Rulffes; never anyone who actually *knows* anything. Is it any surprise that CCSD graduates can't even read their own diplomas?

Public School Naming Committee

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

a school board appointed naming committee.

Things don't get much more bureaucratic than that!

A few days ago RJ ran a feature article about NV schoolkids scoring poorly on standardized math tests. Nobody cares. But, OMG! Threaten to rename a football stadium and folks go BALLISTIC.

Socialist Educrat Business-Think

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Jan Biggerstaff, a member of the state Board of Ed, said: No one is going to want to a hire a 16-year-old full time

Mariani is a bright kid. A smart boss would offer him an apprenticeship in an instant. Biggerstaff is an *idiot*. No one in the private sector would every want to hire *her -- even part-time.

With bureaucrats like Biggerstaff on the Board, is it any wonder the school system stinks? In a previous life, this woman served on a DRAFT Board. The sooner kids escape from CCSD the better off they'll be. Best not to drag them into it in the first place.

Public Education: Poitics & Football

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Public education is all about politics and football. Inject a little drug prohibition into the mix and you get random steroid testing of teenagers. Parents of jocks will cry "foul!". Blacks, who must compose a disproportionate share of varsity athletes, will rightly scream "discrimination!" The Board of Ed will respond in politically correct fashion, and impose random drug testing on ALL students. Can't afford to lose that grant money. Besides, it doesn't cost anything more. The tests already detect other "illegal" substances. I've heard that public schools place too much emphasis on testing, but this is ridiculous.

Scholastic football should be a completely privatized, like Pop Warner. If a private league wants to test for steroids, that is fine with me. What's the big deal about a few MLB players testing positive? I'd venture that almost every player in the NFL is a steroid freak.