The state of Nevada is facing an education crisis. Anyone who has lived in this state for any length of time knows this. When it comes to K-12 education, Nevada is at the bottom of all the good lists, and the top of all the bad lists. Nevada’s high school graduation rate is one of the lowest in the country, and the state’s achievement gap is one of the highest. By any measure, Nevada is not serving its children well, especially children in poverty and in at-risk schools.
Sixteen years ago, voters enshrined in the state constitution specific limits on the Legislature’s ability to intrude on our lives, erode our freedoms, burden our businesses and pile ever more laws into the Nevada Revised Statutes. Biennial regular sessions were capped at 120 days because Nevadans wanted lawmakers to focus on essential business, such as passing a budget, then go home.
The Clark County School District’s space crunch suddenly is far worse than expected. And it was expected to be pretty darn bad when the new academic year started this morning.
There has been an alarming rise in the number of children staying overnight — often for many nights — in Child Haven, the emergency congregate shelter operated by the Clark County Department of Family Services. For the month of January 2013, the average daily population was 19.7.
Strip hotel openings, once annual affairs of one-upmanship, are especially worthy of celebration today because they’re so rare. This weekend’s opening of the SLS Las Vegas should resonate with anyone in Southern Nevada who remembers the good old days, who fought through the Great Recession, who believed that with hard work and vision, eventually, things could get better.
Nevada’s most important campaign is not an elected office. It’s a statewide tax question that requires a yes or no vote. And Democratic candidates up and down November’s ballot aren’t stating their position.
What’s all the fuss over the bat tartare and bird flambe being prepared at renewable energy sites around the Southwest? We’re just moving up the death sentences that would be carried out by the coming climate change doomsday, right?
