LETTERS: CCSD teachers get shortchanged

In response to the article on teacher raises (“Clark County School District says no to pay raises,” June 29 Review-Journal online), I feel it necessary as a CCSD teacher to say that I will not do more for less any longer. How is it that CCSD has to cut funding for pay raises that I feel myself and my colleagues deserve, yet we can entice new teachers to come to our great state to teach with a sign-on bonus? What does this say to current teachers instructing a transient population? What does this say to students who rarely see their past teachers because of constant transfers and resignations?

I also find it quite odd that we are pumping more money into our Career and Technical Education programs. Traditionally, CTE programs accepted the brightest or most talented high school students, focusing mainly on their chosen career path. These students not only showed promise in their chosen fields, but held outstanding grades. Now, these same CTE schools tend to have failing students who end up not focusing on career paths, while failing out of core classes. These students are then pulled out of CTE-focused classes and placed into credit-retrieval programs.

If these students cannot stay on top of core classes required for graduation, why are we putting more money into CTE programs? Once again, the lack of focus on investment in our public educational system hurts students the most. It has been a consistent trend within this district since I started as a substitute teacher in 2006. Even if all the telltale signs told me that our state’s educational system was falling apart, I wanted to be part of something bigger: helping students graduate. I know I am not alone. However, I fear eventually those who stand by me on our meager income path will eventually fall off one by one, if not in droves.

The saying, “It takes a village to raise a child,” is not far from the truth. This state has a duty to its student population. You cannot expect the village to raise the child if that village is constantly changing within its population. Students thrive in a nurturing, stable environment. How is the constant fleeing of teachers from this state stable?

Instead of enticing bigger and better, which our state is known for by means of flashy lights and exotic entertainment, we should start with the basics. Invest in our students by investing in our current teachers. Without current teachers, who will help mold the new teachers coming into our district? It is time for our state to back our current teachers and provide quality education for our students.

KARLANA KULSETH

LAS VEGAS

Heck on ISIS

In the article on Rep. Joe Heck's bid for a U.S. Senate seat ("Heck declares Senate candidacy," July 7 Review-Journal), he said this about ISIS: "You could almost rewind this to say, well, what would we have done to prevent ISIS from ever coming about, and that would have been not withdrawing from Iraq and creating the vacuum that allowed them to flourish — hindsight." Better hindsight would have been not invading and destabilizing Iraq in the first place, on President George W. Bush's trumped-up weapons of mass destruction charges. That is what caused the vacuum that allowed ISIS to flourish.

DAVE FARMER

HENDERSON

Basin and Range

I am responding to the article about Basin and Range ("Nevada gains new monument," July 10 Review-Journal). Great! This will become another move like the one being sought for Gold Butte.

The federal government will close most of the land to public access, implement “limited-use permits,” fence it off and deny open enjoyment of this beautiful wilderness. Lincoln County Commissioner Kevin Phillips and the people he represents have a right to be outraged. But because Sen. Harry Reid wants it, with one fatal swoop of President Barack Obama's pen, the freedom to enjoy this beautiful wilderness was taken away, quarantined.

Sen. Reid said, “This is representative of what desert is all about in Nevada. It is these beautiful mountains and all this lovely desert — sparsely vegetated, but it is vegetated." Wrong, Sen. Reid. Nevada is about mining and ranching with free-range grazing, which are the livelihood of sparsely populated Lincoln County. And it's about farming and beautiful wilderness open for everyone to enjoy.

Now, instead of being able to experience these beautiful mountains up close with hiking and camping, the public will be able to experience them behind a fence from a parking lot 20 miles away, after you pay an entrance fee.

DIANNA CHRISTENSEN

LAS VEGAS