LETTER: The Clark County School Board’s power grab

In response to your June 18 article “Public comment limits in works”:

Teacher unions and school boards control every aspect of a child’s public school education and neither wants to cede any control to parents. Take this truth from an educator of 40 years who has worked at every level of education — classroom, county, state and federal. So when the Review-Journal uses the president of a union — the National Education Association of Southern Nevada — as an expert on the school board meeting processes, it loses credibility.

Reasonable people would ask: What has control by the teachers’ union and school board brought Nevada? The answer is bragging rights as the country’s lowest-ranking state in student achievement.

Review-Journal reporter Julie Wootton-Greener reports that the Clark County School Board’s proposed policy changes state that “the board encourages and values public input.” However, there is a significant disconnect between these words and the board’s policy actions.

First, the policy limits the first public comment period to 20 minutes, and only one public comment is allowed per person on nonagenda items. Second, the proposed policy reduces individual speaking time from three to two minutes. Finally, the time for those speaking on two or more items will be reduced.

Clark County residents agree that inappropriate language should be banned at board meetings. However, the School Board is using the behaviors of a few to exclude parents further and, with its teacher union partner, to grab more power.