Blame school struggles on parental illiteracy

Every day it seems there is a story about “bad” or low-performing public schools. As a substitute teacher for the Clark County School District, I’ve worked in more than 70 schools over the past two years. Many of those were low-performing. I’ve seen teachers and staff work as hard or harder at those schools than at the higher-performing schools. Many of them stay after school to tutor or come in early to tutor students.

The school district can change out teachers and principals at these schools, but I doubt the results will be better (“Three struggling schools to get new principals, staff,” Feb. 5 Review-Journal). All the teachers and staff I’ve worked with are professional and hard-working. I have not worked in a “bad” school.

One big issue I’ve noticed in the low-performing schools is the large number of Hispanic students whose parents do not speak English. Many of these students do not bring in homework, or they do very little of it. The parents not only can’t help their children because they do not know English, but one teacher I know, who speaks Spanish and frequently called parents, told me that many parents are illiterate as well.

It seems crucial to me for kids to have help at home and have a good role model in order to succeed. I know there are adult English classes held at schools. If these parents would take the classes, they would help themselves and their children. It would also set a good example of learning and an example of responsibility and respect for education.

President Barack Obama said learning English would be a prerequisite for earning a green card as part of immigration reform. That would be a good incentive for immigrants to take the classes and also help their children to perform better at school.

LESLIE SCOTT

HENDERSON

Bully tax

To the editor:

The Legislature will be looking at the Bully Tax proposed by the teachers union. It will be considered under the guise of an education initiative. The Bully Tax is the best way to describe it. Just as the bullies on the school grounds harass, punch or extort lunch money from students who can’t protect themselves, that’s what the margins tax will do to our businesses.

I’m a small farmer, and I know that I won’t ever have to pay this extortion, but I can see what effect it will have on others in the industry and, ultimately, on every one of us. It can take money even when no profit has been made because you can’t deduct all your expenses. In agriculture, you may lose money for a couple of years or end up selling two years worth of a crop in one year. Regardless, the farmer would then have to pay the Bully Tax on the margin. The IRS lets you carry a loss forward to smooth out the bumps, but not the Bully Tax.

The CPAs who I talked to said it would be very difficult to figure the margin for agriculture. This means additional learning and bookkeeping costs for both the state and businesses.

It isn’t just farming that this tax effects, it’s any business with a narrow profit margin.

We have to compete with other states and nations. Look at all the empty buildings in our communities. They mean families without jobs, businesses going broke, other tax revenue lost. Let’s not add another burden to our job creators. No to the Bully Tax.

SONYA JOHNSON

FALLON

Death of print?

To the editor:

The “Doonesbury” comic from Feb. 2 clearly demonstrated the unfortunate void that would be created if newspapers were no longer printed. In the first panel of the strip, a character asks, “What happens to comics if newspapers go away?” The other character says, “What happens? Take a look!” The second two panels are blank white space.

Even though it is a comic, it wasn’t funny.

I sincerely hope that people will always have the freedom of choice to read actual printed newspapers, books and magazines and not be forced to read only digital formats.

KATHY VALENTE

LAS VEGAS