School administrators immune from cuts

To the editor:

On June 21 I read yet another article about the need to make cuts from the school district budget ("District braces for cuts"). Many areas of potential cuts were mentioned by Clark County School District administrators. Every single one of them would have a negative impact on both teachers and students in our schools. Not one of the proposed cuts would affect the district-level administration of Clark County.

There are 47 pages of administrators listed in the Clark County School District phone directory. These pages do not include campus administrators, such as principals, assistant principals or deans.

I do not understand why we might have to increase class sizes, eliminate sports, increase the walking distance for students or eliminate teachers and student support staff, but we do not have to touch even one administrative position. The district fat cats will continue to protect their golden egg at the expense of students and teachers.

I wonder what percentage of the administration we would need to eliminate in order to meet the necessary budget cuts?

R.A. Tisimo

LAS VEGAS

Saving the economy

To the editor:

It's amazing how quickly discussions of the oil crisis have turned serious now that the price of gasoline has begun to hamstring our economy ("Achieving energy independence," June 22 Review-Journal). Cheap oil is gone, but the price will go a lot higher if domestic supplies aren't drastically increased and consumption isn't slashed.

The only way to significantly increase supply is to remove restrictions on recovering the huge amounts of oil in the so-called environmentally sensitive areas. It has to include the oil under the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and oil shale in Colorado and Utah. Quit whipping the oil companies and let them use their profits to invest in more oil and gasoline supplies. That's what they know how to do.

To the environmentalists, we should ask: How many times have you been to the frozen arctic wasteland to view the "pristine wilderness" that you want to preserve?

This isn't about saving the planet. If CO₂ turns out to be the cause of global warming, cutting coal consumption would have a much bigger impact than limiting oil consumption. High prices and limited supplies will cause oil consumption to decline, anyway, but it is not necessary to strangle our economy to accelerate that process.

Tom Keller

HENDERSON

Closet communist

To the editor:

Liberal Review-Journal columnist Geoff Schumacher now promotes a state Income tax, despite the fact that our state constitution strictly prohibits income taxes (June 22 column). Why am I not surprised?

That puts him right in lockstep with the rest of his far-left cronies who are against drilling for oil and nuclear power and support illegal immigration and giving our jobs away overseas.

So I've finally figured out the Schumacher plan: Give our jobs, money and lives to the state, and the state will promise to take care of us. Sounds like something Fidel Castro said 40 years ago to the people of Cuba. Look how great that experiment turned out.

Ron Moers

HENDERSON

Disgraceful parents

To the editor:

I have just read the criminal complaint and police report regarding the death of 4-year-old Jason Rimer, which just made me sick and broke my heart ("Parents face murder charge," Thursday Review-Journal). There are so many things I want to say, which I'm sure will be expressed by many others, so let me just ask two questions, based solely on the criminal complaint and police report made available to the public:

First, why in the world do people keep having children when they can't/won't take care of them?

Second, why, why, why was this family brought to the attention of Child Protective Services 21 times between 1988 and May 2007, yet nothing was done by CPS to protect the children? (And the family "spokesman," their neighbor, thinks they were good parents and that Jason's death was simply an accident that could have happened to anybody?)

I can only hope that the surviving Rimer children get the counseling and love they desperately need and are not returned to their parents.

Karen Forsyth

LAS VEGAS

Government spending

To the editor:

Just when you think you've heard it all, along comes a Thursday letter to the editor from Hank Stone which suggests we can tax ourselves into economic prosperity.

Our current shortfall of tax revenue is a result of tightened consumer spending because of rising costs on goods and services that are fundamental to survival, such as food, transportation and health care. Raising taxes does not increase revenue to government coffers -- on the contrary, it has just the opposite effect.

I know -- let's raise taxes on only the rich. I remember when Congress raised taxes by 10 percent on the sale of yachts because the rich supposedly could afford to pay it. Instead, the tax increase all but decimated the American yacht industry, causing increased unemployment. Which was followed by the loss of revenue to the treasury, proving once again that you cannot tax yourself into financial paradise.

We should stop judging the state on how much it spends per capita and start judging the results by how much is spent in failing programs and act accordingly.

Louis Frederick

NORTH LAS VEGAS