LETTERS: Quality education requires funding

Sean Whaley’s article concerning funding for the Question 3 campaign — the margins tax — follows predictable pro-business lines (“Donors fight tax measure with cash,” Oct. 15 Review-Journal). When education funding comes before the voters, it forewarns the electorate that vested powers are underfunding kids — our most precious resource. This lack of support explains why Nevada education ranks so dismally nationwide.

As a retired educator from California, I saw the same dollar drought for education play itself out, with underperforming students and faculty stressed out by burgeoning class size. Worse, as instructors tried to help students, businesses and other vested interests kept up a chorus of complaints that schools were not turning out enough well-rounded graduates who could become skilled employees. In other words, employers were telling us to train a better workforce but would not fund an extra dime to do so.

So in a California instant replay, the Review-Journal article was a textbook case on those supporting proposed help to schools. First, The Education Initiative PAC, on the obvious pro-schools side, drives the better funding agenda. Presumably, this group comprises educators and others willing to struggle for high-quality education.

On the other hand, the Coalition to Defeat the Margin Tax Initiative is clearly supported by a pro-business, anti-public education conglomerate. This raises the obvious question: Don’t these people have kids?

Beyond that, the rest of the puzzle falls predictably into place. Note that the opponents are the same folks who want the educated workforce, but on the cheap. The second major funding source comes from the resort association, presumably gaming, followed by a power, er, a utility company, which shouldn’t be a player at all. Finally, the insurers and mining interests bring up the rear with big bucks.

Rather scandalously, all the aforementioned groups are the only ones with the resources to turn around Nevada’s education mess. Sadly, the whole lineup is fraught with the usual suspects. The group that always argues for better graduates completely fails to support education. Basically, it’s an anti-student and anti-teachers agenda. Watching this play out, it’s terribly clear: The “pay to play” margins tax opposition leaves quality education underfunded.

In short, why can’t voters and employers wake up to the need for more school dollars?

LEE MALLORY

LAS VEGAS

Kudos to Smith

To the editor:

It isn’t just the Oct. 12 column that brings me to heap kudos and praise on the Review-Journal’s John L. Smith (“Churches don’t think life is that beautiful”). I think I’ve only not liked three out of the thousands of columns he’s written. He is always in tune, meaningful, thoughtful and mindful, but this particular column needs some special applause.

Most renowned columnists don’t give a sentence to anything to do with religion, as if it were some taboo subject or far too hot of a potato to handle. But in true John L. Smith fashion, we heard about little churches being pushed out of the town square, marginalized to the point that, God forbid, they should just close their doors because they are interfering with some visitors’ festivities.

Thank God Mr. Smith has the heart, soul and spirit to notice not just when the little guy is being overrun, but when God is being dismissed as an inconvenient part of our community. How dare our city fathers and mothers not have some civil boundaries for visitors and events?

My husband happens to be from South Philadelphia. He was recently there and visited the oldest synagogue in the United States. He noted with immense interest that it sits right next door to the oldest Catholic church in our country. Can Las Vegas not spare a little time on a Sunday morning for antiquities that give us deeper meaning, speak to our roots (however young and tender), give us balance in a maddening world and a contemplative moment?

If you want to see what happens when churches are asked to close their doors, just go travel in China. It’s sad. God help us, and bless John L. Smith for noticing and caring.

MONTEREY BROOKMAN

LAS VEGAS