LETTERS: Parents best predictor of student success
To the editor:
Victoria Carreon and Seth Rau co-authored a commentary in the Aug. 3 Review-Journal (“Teachers need better professional development”). Ms. Carreon and Mr. Rau wrote, “Quality instruction is the single best predictor of student achievement.” I believe that’s incorrect.
Most academic studies in the past 15 years indicate that parents are the strongest predictor of student success. The studies vary somewhat about which factor is most important: parental education, parental income or parental involvement. However, when all those factors are considered, parents are the most important predictor in the academic success of their children.
As much as improving student achievement, Ms. Carreon and Mr. Rau seem to have an agenda intended to justify more spending for the education-industrial complex.
JOHN MCGRAIL
LAS VEGAS
Growth and water
To the editor:
I continue to be amazed with what some people in the Las Vegas Valley are thinking in regard to our water supply. Inspirada, a new master plan community in Henderson, recently opened (“Inspirada revival could lift market,” Aug. 2 Review-Journal). The plans call for thousands of homes there. Another community is planned for North Las Vegas in 2015. That one is expected to have 15,000 new homes.
Letter writer Steven Ginther said local water conservation is not the answer, stating the problem is with farmlands in California’s Imperial Valley using too much water (“Growth not at root of water problems,” Aug. 3 Review-Journal). Am I the only one concerned as I see Lake Mead currently far below capacity and continuing to sink?
So I guess I can go back to normal showers and put grass back in my front yard, since there is obviously no water problem here.
JACK OLIVER
LAS VEGAS
Praise for the VA
To the editor:
My husband, a disabled Vietnam veteran and cancer survivor, underwent a blood test on a recent Friday. Upon arriving home hours later, we already had two messages from the Veterans Affairs clinic. The first message, about an hour after my husband’s appointment, requested that he call the doctor; the second, about an hour later, advised him to get to the emergency room as soon as possible.
At the VA hospital’s emergency room, he went through the admittance process and the diagnosis was confirmed. Unfortunately, the VA had no vacant beds. But Mike O’Callaghan Hospital at Nellis Air Force Base had space, and an ambulance transported my husband for appropriate treatment, thereby saving his life.
I take umbrage with Rick Ainsworth’s disparagement of the VA system in his letter (“VA money pit,” Aug. 4 Review-Journal). The VA health care system services a great number of America’s worthy disabled veterans in a very organized and efficient manner. The VA is not perfect and will benefit from recent upgrades, but it is a mistake to summarily stigmatize the entire system and seek to destroy the parts that do work well. Privatization is not the answer to every problem.
So enough with the negative rhetoric. U.S. soldiers are returning from two extensive wars, with an inordinate number of them suffering physical and psychological damage. They will need the VA’s assistance for the foreseeable future. We owe it to them to be prepared to manage their care. Before rushing to judgment, give the change in leadership a chance to work out systemic problems that have plagued the VA for decades.
IRIS I. JOHNSON
LAS VEGAS
Spoiling Spanish
To the editor:
Three out of nine Spanish words — “informacion,” “feria” and “trabajo” — were misspelled in the Aug. 4 Review-Journal Career Fair ad. Three words — “empujar,” “recargarse” and “pararse” — are often misspelled on city bus caution signs. Big messages in red letters in the stairwell of some paratransit buses translate to, “You are careful of the steps,” instead of “Be careful.” Oso Negra Street is a hideous masculine-feminine gender error.
These kinds of errors in English would be intolerable and embarrassing. Why doesn’t Spanish deserve the same care and accuracy?
DONALD E. SCHMIEDEL
LAS VEGAS
