LOCAL STUDENTS OFFER HOPE FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION
To the editor:
In 1957, the Soviet Union put the world's first man-made satellite into orbit around the Earth. I can remember standing in the back yard of my boyhood home in Illinois with my parents looking for it in the nighttime sky. Sputnik flashed across the sky like a warning beacon, signaling that America was falling behind in the race for space because we had failed as a country to focus on science in a serious way.
Sputnik caused us to refocus our efforts. Among the most successful were America's programs to renew the emphasis on math and science education in the public schools and to graduate more physical science Ph.D.s.
Fast forward several decades, and America must once again stimulate the interest of our young people in math and basic physical science. A recent report published by the National Academies Press points out that U.S. colleges and universities awarded nearly twice as many bachelor's degrees in physics in 1956 -- the year before Sputnik -- than it did in 2007. And fewer than 15 percent of U.S. high school graduates have sufficient math and science credentials to even begin to pursue a university engineering degree.
This is a critical issue for America. During the past two decades, the number of engineers, mathematicians, physical scientists, and geoscientists graduating with bachelor's degrees from U.S. universities has declined by 18 percent. As a percentage of total student population receiving undergraduate degrees, it's down by 40 percent. Today, China graduates more English-speaking engineers than we do.
To counter this, President Bush has aggressively supported science through the American Competitiveness Initiative, which is designed to increase funding for the National Science Foundation and support math and science education at the high school and junior high school levels.
But money is only part of the solution. We need to find ways to stimulate young minds to make sure we can develop innovative solutions to our most pressing problems, including those in the energy arena, and to come up with new technologies as well as improvements to existing ones that will keep us competitive in the global economy.
Since 1991, the Department of Energy has sponsored the National Science Bowl, where more than 130,000 students from schools all across the United States pit their knowledge of the physical and life sciences against one another.
This weekend, five high school students from The Meadows School in Las Vegas, having emerged the winners of regional competitions held earlier this year, will be in Washington, D.C., to go up against some of the nation's brightest students in the final round of the National Science Bowl. You should be extremely proud of The Meadows School team; reaching the final round is not an easy accomplishment. Hopefully, this will encourage them to pursue these disciplines at the university level and out into the work force.
Samuel W. Bodman
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THE WRITER IS U.S. SECRETARY OF ENERGY.
Three-legged stool
To the editor:
In response to your Sunday editorial, "Everyone's a 'have-not' ": If we are going to have a discussion about the state of our schools, let's at least make it an honest one. The biggest limitation on student success is not disenfranchised teachers, careless parents or lazy students. It is all three.
Having taught on both sides of the Las Vegas Beltway, I can tell you that successful students sit atop a three-legged stool. The three legs are their own investment in their education, their school's commitment and flexibility in meeting their unique learning needs, and their family's ability to provide consistent support for their educational pursuits.
If we truly value education, then our job is not to point out what leg is weak (or even broken). It is to find ways to strengthen all three.
So go ahead, spend taxpayer money on a non-binding advisory ballot question on the size of the district. Or chastise families whose financial reality requires long work weeks. However, if you truly care about education, find one simple way this school year to take action. From contributing time as a school volunteer, donating whatever supplies or materials your budget allows, or simply being more flexible about when you are available to meet with other educationally minded community members.
Once we start working and talking with each other about what is going on in our schools, we might not only be able to discover what is actually wrong, but we will also be able to work together to fix it.
Gary Allen Bennett
LAS VEGAS
Good news
To the editor:
How refreshing to see such a good news/positive article make the front page of Thursday's newspaper. "Touching them all, helping her home" was a heartwarming story with an outstanding message for all of us. Thank you, Review-Journal.
Vicki Niggemeyer
LAS VEGAS
Got cake?
To the editor:
In response to Monday's letter to the editor from Nevada Republican Party Chairwoman Sue Lowden on reforming public employee retirement benefits:
God has truly blessed Sue Lowden. Where else but in Las Vegas could a newscaster marry a piano player who bought a casino and, from the top of the lucky heap, tell lowly public employees that their retirement benefits are totally out of line? Where, I ask you?
If I were a public employee, I would surely push to increase the taxes on businesses that have shirked their fair share, preventing our government from paying its obligations. It is time for gaming and mining to pay up.
I love it when fat-cat Republicans, especially theoretical "businesswomen," clamor for an adjustment to public employee benefits because taxpayers will constantly be hit up for more. What they really mean is that they are tired of subsidizing the middle class, and the little guy can go scratch.
The times they are a changing, Madame Chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party. Got cake?
Chandler Levrich
LAS VEGAS
Hollywood lessons
To the editor:
I recently attended the National Association of Broadcasters convention. I heard from many exhibitors that they were increasingly unhappy with the high costs of coming to Las Vegas to show off their wares.
They complained of the high cost of renting convention center space and the exorbitant hotel rates. Some NAB exhibitors refused to come this year and pay these prices.
If Las Vegas does not review these practices, it might end up like Hollywood in the '80s and '90s. Movie production work went north to Canada and to all parts of the globe. They got a better deal and took advantage of it.
Hollywood had to take a hard look and change its ways, but the damage had been done. Wake up, Las Vegas.
B. Murray
LAS VEGAS
Finish your terms
To the editor:
It is ethically wrong for any politician to campaign for a higher political office while serving in another. Politicians who do so have broken their promise to their constituents to serve them honorably in the office to which the politician was elected, and for the term they promised to serve. Politicians should either serve out their elected terms or resign before announcing that they're seeking another political office.
Professional sports teams prevent their coaches and players from seeking jobs with other teams while under contract. Shouldn't we expect the same from our politicians?
Maybe our politicians believe we ask too much when we ask them to be ethical and honorable. How sad.
S.G. Hayes
LAS VEGAS
