Restore discipline to retain teachers

To the editor:

In response to Richard Law's April 30 letter to the editor, "Time out for schools": I have to agree that administrators need to be more accountable, and teacher hiring needs to be looked at. But hiring teachers isn't the real problem. Keeping them is.

Mr. Law asked the question, "What is happening in the classrooms to disenchant dedicated teachers and those who want to learn?" That's easy. Discipline in our schools is almost nonexistent, and students are out of control. Parents, administrators and students have no respect for teachers. Oh, they will never say that out loud (it's not politically correct), but actions speak much louder than words.

This might explain the student violence in schools and also solve the problem with "keeping teachers." Who wants to go to college for four or five years, spending big bucks to get a job where a 10-year-old calls you names that have more bleeps than non-bleeps, and then be told it's your fault.

Mr. Law said there should be no excuses for failure. All I have to say is, if you stop blaming teachers for the failures, they would stop making excuses. Parents and students are the determining factor in a student's success or failure. Teachers have a responsibility, but they can only lead the students to the water. They can not force them to drink.

Maybe the Clark County School District just does not want to keep teachers. After all if a teacher quits after four years of service, who benefits? The Clark County School District does. You have to stick around for at least five years to collect any of your retirement benefits. And teachers do not really start making any decent money until they get their master's degree and have about six or seven years of teaching. Just some extra food for thought.

Let's focus on the drop-in rate, not the dropout rate.

Jim Blockey

LAS VEGAS

Energy policy

To the editor:

The ingenious politicians never cease to amaze. They are trying to buy votes by proposing to pay us $20 or $30 through reduced gasoline taxes (taken away from crumbling road and bridge repairs) and telling us that this is an energy policy.

A real energy policy will do what is possible to increase oil supplies and decrease demand, and this will do neither.

There is no quick, cheap alternative to the oil supply and demand problem. Oil fuels our cars and trucks because it is the most energy-dense and convenient form of energy. The best way to make future shortages tolerable requires starting on long-term solutions now.

In the meantime, we need to open up drilling in the Alaskan arctic and off our coasts, and we need to drastically improve vehicle fuel efficiency. Subsidies should be concentrated on the most likely solution to the oil shortage: electric cars that do not run on oil and gasoline.

And, unless CO? turns out not to be the cause of global warming, the electricity will have to come from nuclear power, not coal.

Tom Keller

HENDERSON

Words do matter

To the editor:

In his Sunday column, Thomas Mitchell insists that Sen. John McCain's quote indicating that there may be an American troop presence in Iraq for 100 years is being taken out of context.

Mr. Mitchell then seems to split the difference by arguing that if the United States stays in Iraq, it will take 65 years to reach the number of military personnel killed in the Vietnam War. I am not sure of Mr. Mitchell's questionable logic in that statement.

But as to Mr. Mitchell's larger point: Yes, I agree, words do matter.

In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, when asked how long the war would last, responded, "It could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."

Also in the run-up to the invasion, Vice President Dick Cheney claimed, "My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators."

That sentiment was shared by Sen. McCain in a similar statement made in March 2003.

Finally, President Bush declared in July 2003, as the Iraqi insurgency gained momentum, "My answer is, bring 'em on." Mr. Bush later apologized for that remark.

But back to Mr. Mitchell, who concludes by reminding us that today's words are tomorrow's lessons of history. I believe that the American people, after recent experience, will keep that in mind when asked to approve of an attack or invasion of another country in the future.

Jerry Villela

LAS VEGAS