Feb

5

2007 Legislative Session Starts!

Filed Under Joe Enge | 

• Let the Games Begin
• 2007 Player List
• Empowerment AND All-Day K?
• Major Victory in Utah

Let the Games Begin
Nevada’s political version of rugby starts today in Carson City, the day after Super Bowl Sunday. Without helmets, padding, or referees to call penalties (The NFL has it easy), our 63 legislators will be meeting at least 120 days for the 74th Regular Session.

The Watchdog can’t assess penalties, but can at least point out personal fouls and predictable attempts to run out of the bounds of reason as education is discussed and debated. Hopefully, critical thinking and valid data can drive down the field past the defense of rhetoric and systemic self-interest to score some points.

Newly elected Speaker of the Assembly Barbara Buckley fired her first salvo across the bow by heavily emphasizing the “need” for All-Day K in her first address of the 2007 Legislature. Actually she took a round in her own foot when she mentioned the growth in kindergarten attendance since the late 70s while being silent on any commensurate achievement growth. Since there hasn’t been achievement growth, it would have been better for her to skip the increased program attendance part.

Speaker Buckley went on to say “our studies show”, which is great improvement from the “all studies show” chant. I am sure the “our” is a reference to the school district, results oriented studies with the problems I’ve previously cited.

Looking around at who was clapping after Buckley’s call for All-Day K, I saw Assemblywoman Francis Allen clapping. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and hope it was an “I’ll be polite” clap and not an “I agree” clap. We shall see. Congratulations are in order for freshman Assemblyman Ty Cobb for being the lone “no” vote to elect Speaker Buckley.

2007 Player List
The Las Vegas Review-Journal published THE PLAYERS: Your guide to the 2007 Legislature in Sunday’s edition. Yours truly is listed as a conservative education reformer and representing Nevada Policy Research Institute. The teachers union, Nevada State Education Association, is also listed. It’s a classic contest of whether right is might or might is right.

Empowerment AND All-Day K?
It’s time to throw down the gauntlet and offer up a challenge. If the advocates for All-Day K TRULY (really, genuinely, sincerely) believe it is the cat’s meow and will do all they claim, then they should welcome (embrace, hug, hail) Gov. Gibbons’ Empowerment Plan. With this plan, they will be empowered to implement All-Day K if they so choose. With each school controlling 92% of the budget, as done in Edmonton, they will be free to pursue this pet project.

Of course the catch is they will have to direct funds from something else. It’s their call. If their claims are valid regarding the benefits of All-Day K and it is that important to them, then they will gladly pay the “opportunity cost” involved in redirecting present resources given to them. I’ll wager they don’t want it bad enough to even fund a small test program to prove the assertions on their own dime without additional funding.

Major Victory in Utah
Our neighbor to the east is making major strides towards school choice. Excerpts from the following article are interesting.

Somewhere, Milton Is Smiling
Utahns win a hard-fought victory for school choice
John Fund on the Trail, Wall Street Journal
Monday, February 5, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST

The late Milton Friedman, who was the nation’s foremost advocate for school choice, would be more than pleased with the news coming out of Utah. By a vote of 38-37, the Utah House last Thursday approved the first-ever statewide universal school choice plan.

By the time the bill came up for a floor vote, the debate was more philosophical and substantive than demagogic. “The debate was of the highest caliber that I’ve seen in my 13 years here,” said Speaker Greg Curtis. “I find it fascinating that not a single person spread the myth that [choice] would be harmful to public education.”

A profile in courage. The choice bill would have gone down to defeat had Rep. Brad Last not changed his vote. Just last month, Mr. Last, himself a former public-school official, voted against the bill as a member of the Education Committee. Last Thursday, he voted “yes,” prompting gasps from the visitor’s gallery.

“I believe history will demonstrate to supporters and detractors that this is a good choice,” he told a hushed chamber. “To those of you in public education who want to kill me right now, I’m really sorry. I understand your pain. I would ask you, go read this bill, and don’t say a word to me until you read this bill.”

Another surprise supporter of the bill was freshman Rep. Keith Grover, a vice principal at a junior high school, who said during the floor debate that “everyone knows how I make a living” and that he had wrestled with his conscience on how to vote. He said he believed public education needed the innovation that choice could bring.
You can read the complete article here.

Joe Enge
Chairman, EdWatch Nevada
Education Analyst, Nevada Policy Research Institute

It has been discovered that the best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804—1881)

Comments

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind