Edward Goldman

From the LVRJ

Edward Goldman, the district's associate superintendent for educational services, believes a foreign language boosts children's intellectual development

Another non-teaching position. Does Goldman report to the Deputy Superintendent of Occidental Theatre or the Associate Vice Superintendent For Curriculum Oversight?

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.

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.

CCSD's Suggestion Box

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Don't take that ridiculous survey. It just gives Rulffes an excuse to hire more IT people to build the web application, statisticians to analyze the data, and SGML document processors to produce the final report.

Then it goes in Rulffes' trash can. Along with your child's education.

Public Education: Great News for Paper Factories

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

lawmakers issued a resolution that requires [K-16 bureaucracies] to formalize recommendations on improving fiscal efficiency and accountability

Is that resolution binding? More jobs for lawyers to ensure compliance. More jobs for administrators to draft 400 page reports which nobody is going to read. And then you people complain about all the money spent outside the classroom!

Until we can completely abolish CCSD, break it up into 15,000+ smaller districts.

CCSD's RD-Certified Junk Food

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Charles Anderson, director of the district's food service department.

Another non-teaching position. Does Anderson report to the Deputy Liason for Caloric Curriculum or the Vice Superintendent for Nutritional Negligence? You could buy a lot of RD-certified junk-food for what CCSD is paying him.

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!

Concerned About Guns In CCSD? Drop Dead!

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

[Mandatory expulsion] does not apply to students who are on city streets or at bus stops.

Bureaucratic and legalistic, promulgated by CCSD lawyers. Once again, CCSD shows its monopolistic arrogance. "Don't bother us. What you don't know won't hurt you." It knows that parents -- whose kids are drafted into school -- have little choice but to send them to one of CCSD's offerings; especially *poor* parents.

CCSD is basically saying that $100K of funding is worth more than the personal safety of hundreds of other kids. Don't let CCSD use your kids as guinea pigs. DEMAND to know which skoolz are being used as landfill. If CCSD gives you the brush off, PULL your kids OUT. When CCSD loses enough money ($1M should do it) they'll become a lot more openminded about transferring those two boys to California.

If CCSD transferred those boys to rich white skoolz, there'd be an outcry you would not believe. All of a sudden, expulsion wouldn't look so drastic after all.

Child Labor at CCSD

Originally posted in a LVRJ forum.

Michael Rodriguez, a CCSD spokesman, explained that the two hours of cleaning is estimated to be the equivalent of the time a student would spend raising funds

Another non-teaching position. Does Rodriguez report to the Deputy Liason for Non-technical Communication or the Assistant Principal for Nutritional Pedagogy?

Making students pay for their grades (a "user fee") is a good trend. We spend >$10,000/yr per kid. CCSD parents should be forced to clean and retile the bathrooms. Some prisons are charging inmates for extras. The schools are like prisons minus the orange jumpsuits.

"Homeless Kid" Depends On CCSD's Definition

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Myra Berkovits, the district coordinator for the federally funded Homeless Outreach Program Education, HOPE ... Each public school in Clark County has a homeless student advocate. HOPE also has five project facilitators who are each responsible for overseeing about 75 public schools.

More non-teaching positions -- and I must admit, ones I never even dreamed of! Does Berkovits report to CCSD's Ombudsman for Science & Sports or its Deputy Liason for Rickshaw Traffic Oversight?

I don't buy that statistic of ~8,000 homeless CCSD kids. It all depends on what the meaning of the word "homeless" is. Does it include

• Offspring of a hotel's GM?
• Kids living in trailer parks?
• Kids in the middle of divorce custody battles?

The question is to be decided by politicians for political purposes.

CCSD Math

Myra Berkovits, the district coordinator for the federally funded Homeless Outreach Program Education, HOPE ... Each public school in Clark County has a homeless student advocate. HOPE also has five project facilitators who are each responsible for overseeing about 75 public schools.

More non-teaching positions -- and I must admit, ones I never even dreamed of! Does Berkovits report to CCSD's Ombudsman for Science & Sports or its Deputy Liason for Rickshaw Traffic Oversight?

I don't buy that statistic of ~8,000 homeless CCSD kids. It all depends on what the meaning of the word "homeless" is. Does it include

• Offspring of a hotel's GM?
• Kids living in trailer parks?
• Kids in the middle of divorce custody battles?

The question is to be decided by politicians for political purposes.

CCSD Out of Arts Education

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Rick McEnaney, the district's director of secondary fine arts education

Another non-teaching position. Does this guy report to the Assistant Liason for Interdistrict Communications or to the Deputy Administrator for Creativity & Health?
Sorry, but arts is *not* core. Besides, the arts education your kid is likely to get at CCSD will be *very* superficial. Like the core subjects. If you want to expose your kids to arts (a noble gesture), hire a teacher to come to your house. You can probably get one for as little as $25 per week. Indeed, bring your child's education *entirely* in-house and homeschool.

In my old high school (not CCSD), drama was not serious, only a clique. Interestingly, years after I left, my middle school music teacher was incarcerated for having sex with students.

Public Sinecures

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Everyone knows that public employee compensation is higher than what their private sector counterparts make. We shouldn't be surprised that a CCSD receptionist is making $76K. LVRJ frequently writes about CCSD non-jobs like "fire watcher" and "policeman" which are also ridiculously high (with guarenteed OT).

Remember Monica Lewinsky's "friend", Linda Tripp? She was a Pentagon office secretary. She was making $88K. Then you have the fact that many public sector jobs don't even have private sector equivalents. "Liason" to this, "coordinator" of that, etc. Such jobs are entirely worthless. I've read the complaints about low pay posted by alleged CCSD teachers. I'm sure private school teacher salaries are even *lower*.

CCSD Graduation Rate Inflated

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

The number of students who graduate (the numerator) is misleadingly high. Most of those kids are just barely functioning. That is, by graduation day, they're lucky if they can read their own diplomas. The proficiency exam really only tests whether they can read the invitations.

Part of the cause of this disaster known as public education is revealed in the article. CCSD is teeming with bureaucrats. For example, did you know that CCSD employs a:

• director of testing
• Deputy Superintendent of Instruction

Do they resport to the Second Liason Assistant Coordinator of Quality and Scope, or to the Vice-Superintendent of Transporation Effectiveness?

CCSD Lobbyist

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Joyce Haldeman, the district lobbyist, said she could not vouch for what promises might have been made in negotiations ..

If we had small government in this state, the session would last only 4 days, legislators would be paid like jurors, and lobbyists -- the scum of the Earth (although that might be unfair to scum), would be doing PR for Al Qaeda.

Public Education Cannot Be Reformed

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

In 10 years we'll still be repeating the same questions and complaints:

• "Where does all the money go?"
• "Why are results so poor?"
• etc. and so forth.

CCSD will *always* need many non-teaching positions because myriad government regulations require a large staff just to comply.

CCSD will *always* find new "initiatives" to fund in order to qualify "federal matching funds".

CCSD will *always* need to satisfy trendy political goals like promoting "diversity", battling "climate change", and safe sex.

The result is an enormous, self-focused (and expanding) CCSD bureaucracy that by necessity must place a very low priority on the 3R's.

CCSD Brain Scans

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Fewer zombies mean fewer brain scans. Eliminate all CCSD assistants, deputies, liasons, coordinators, specialists, officers, adjutants, psychologists, vices, seconds, counselors, consultants, chiefs, etc. Eliminate all CCSD coaches, drivers, policemen, nutritionists, dieticians, demographers, etc.