EdWatch Nevada by Joe Enge
Joe Enge serves as an education analyst with NPRI, as chairman of EdWatch Nevada, and as a member of the Carson City School Board. Author of two world history textbooks, columnist for Liberty Watch Magazine, Joe was a high school teacher in Nevada from 1988 to 2006 and a Fulbright teacher to the former Soviet Union. He was named a Madison Fellow in 2005.
Recently Written
- Don’t practice whole language on my kids: history of the phonics vs. whole language debate
- You know things are really bad when the Dems demand public school reform: Democrats for Education Reform
- Office of the AG agrees Carson City School board agenda item would have violated the Open Meeting Law
- Heidi Harris Show appearance
- Ethics to hold formal hearing against former State Board of Education member Gary Waters
- Lesson in education
- Educational feudalism
- Professional choice
- Regent Knecht’s Official Evaluation of Chancellor Jim Rogers
- Everyone suffers when educrats don’t do their homework
Categories
Archives
Admin
Search
May
5
Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley is getting frustrated in her attempts to fund All-day K. Never mind the lack of evidence to prove it works. Never mind K-12’s salient problems are at the secondary level. Never mind budget projections require decreasing state spending increases. Never mind Governor Gibbons has safeguarded the K-12 budget from these spending decreases.
The new battle plan to force All-day K reflects a sense of desperation in these waning weeks of the 2007 Legislative Session. The talking points being chorused by proponents to the media and new strategy include:
• Let’s make K-12 a priority and spend money for education instead of prisons. Paint a false picture that the governor’s budget does a disservice to K-12, going to even the extreme of saying we don’t spend “any” money on it. Hopefully, no one will look at the facts too closely that prove otherwise. Say it forcefully, emotionally, and often to overcome its lack of substance.
• All-day K will impact the incarceration rate. By spending money on the front end, we save money on the back end. Hopefully, no one will ask if even one study exists to prove that creative contention. It sounds good. Who cares if it is true? Once again say it forcefully, emotionally, and often to overcome its lack of substance.
• Make an all out run on the university system’s budget. Ignore the university system has made cuts already while K-12 was exempt from such cuts. Hang Chancellor Jim Rogers out to dry after he has given enthusiastic, unquestionable, and very vocal support for All-day K from the beginning. Yes, this loyal ally will be played for a patsy, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Put together the articles below by Ed Vogel and Geoff Dornan, an interesting picture emerges. You can see why my quotes in Vogel’s article are a source of frustration. Add some regents (Regent Ron Knecht presented NPRI’s extensive bibliography of All-day K studies) questioning Rogers last Wednesday in Las Vegas regarding his blind support of All-day K and how it has set the university system budget up, you have a sense of the political dynamics that are taking place and will be played out over the next several weeks.
Legislator voices frustration
Governor’s budget shorts public schools, assemblywoman contends
By Ed Vogel
Review-Journal Capital Bureau
May 4, 2007
CARSON CITY — Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, questioned why the state can find money for prison inmates when it does not have funds to expand the full-day kindergarten program to all eligible children.
Click here to read the rest.
Assembly, Senate battle over university budgets
Geoff Dornan
Appeal Capitol Bureau
May 4, 2007
The first major budget battle of the session erupted Thursday as Assembly Democrats began positioning themselves to bargain for more K-12 public education money.
When the dust settled, they had voted to chop $25.7 million more from university budgets than the Senate members of the joint subcommittee.
You can read the rest of the article here.
Joe Enge
Chairman, EdWatch Nevada
Education Analyst, Nevada Policy Research Institute
A lie told often enough becomes the truth.
Lenin
Comments
2 Comments so far
[…] Say thanks to Warner Todd for posting this by clicking through to get the rest of the story. And if you have a moment, drop a note of encouragement to the good folks on the County Board in Pike County, Illinois. Let them know they aren’t alone in the fight. Joe Enge at Edwatch Nevada puts up a trio of posts on the battle in the state to enact an all day Kindergarten program statewide. Seems the government really wants it and is willing to spend a LOT of money to fund it. Turns out, the problem is - it’s not an effective program and so would effectively waste every dime spent on it. Leave it to Joe to find that out and make a lot of waves telling everyone else what he knows! We shouldn’t be surprised the government is spending money like a drunken sailor. We shouldn’t be surprised they’re continuing to try and do so despite overwhelming evidence that it’s bad spending. We should be both surprised and disappointed, however, if Joe is alone in this fight. Head to EdWatch Nevada and at least leave an encouraging comment. If you’re a Nevada resident, thank your god that you have Joe Enge on your side and then contact him to see if you can help. Joe’s got the bad guys on the run as the title of his post ‘Buckley’s Frustrations and a desperate Battle Plan’ indicate. Help him put these poor guys out of their misery once and for all! Taking leave from posting the music and lyrics from the Union organizing tunes Al Gore’s mom used to sing him to sleep with years ago, the boys over at The Union Label Blog have noted that unions can get dangerous if they have too much power, just like anyone else. In ‘Crush ‘em Like Bugs!’ alleged abuse of power by members of the New Jersey State Police union is chronicled. According to TULB, There has been much public criticism following the high-speed crash by a state trooper in New Jersey where Gov. Jon Corzine, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was seriously injured. Upset by the criticism, some cops on a private union website called for a “ticket-writing blitz” on May 1st, according to CNS News. One trooper wrote, “Just hang out in the right lane doing 70 and pick off the first (expletive) that goes by.” […]
[…] We shouldn’t be surprised the government is spending money like a drunken sailor. We shouldn’t be surprised they’re continuing to try and do so despite overwhelming evidence that it’s bad spending. We should be both surprised and disappointed, however, if Joe is alone in this fight. Head to EdWatch Nevada and at least leave an encouraging comment. If you’re a Nevada resident, thank your god that you have Joe Enge on your side and then contact him to see if you can help. Joe’s got the bad guys on the run as the title of his post ‘Buckley’s Frustrations and a desperate Battle Plan’ indicate. Help him put these poor guys out of their misery once and for all! […]