If anyone wants to know a main reason why the public schools in Nevada are so screwed up, all you need do is attend one meeting of the Nevada State Board of Education. I swear, I’ve seen brighter bulbs in a dark room. If you don’t count John Gwaltney, the combined IQ of the board appears to be somewhere in the neighborhood of twelve-times-twelve - which, I suspect from personal observation, the board members themselves would need a calculator to figure out. But then again, I’m sugar-coating it.
Let’s start with the fact that despite a $2.35 billion K-12 general fund budget, the board apparently can’t figure out how to broadcast their meetings over the Internet so citizens all over the state can watch this circus from the convenience and comfort of their homes. These people need to get with the 21st century.
But down to the meat of the meeting: Killing charter schools in Nevada. Here’s the exact agenda item put forward by Harry Reid’s daughter-in-law and board member, Cindy Reid:
“Consideration and possible action to place a moratorium on approving all future state sponsored charter school applications and all future amendments to current state sponsored charter schools.”
Now, the first thing you need to know about this proposal is that no one on the board seems to know exactly how it got on the agenda in the first place. Must have been another immaculate conception.
Secondly, you should know that Reid actually consulted a dictionary in the middle of the meeting to look up the meaning of the word “moratorium” and felt it necessary to share it with the entire board. Like I said, we’re not talking about rocket scientists here, even though some of them are called “Doctors.”
Which brings up a side note: Why do we call people who have attained a certain number of degrees in the non-medical field of education “doctors”? Doctors are professional people who heal the sick, not make people sick. But that’s another argument for another day.
Anyway, when the board finally got around to the much-anticipated Item #14 on killing charter schools, board president “Doctor” Cliff Ferry announced that despite the public notice that the proposal included a moratorium on “all future amendments (that means “changes,” Ms. Reid) to current state sponsored charter schools,” he didn’t know how that part got into the agenda and had already been taken out.
The gathered multitudes were then subjected to three hours of “intellectual” debate on the problems the board faces with regard to charter schools. The whining and moaning came down to, and you’ll be shocked by this, “We don’t have enough money or staff.” How’s that for original?
Every single board member prefaced (that means “started off,” Ms. Reid) their remarks on the proposed moratorium by saying in one way or another, “I love charter schools.” It reminded me of something Margaret Thatcher once said; that if you have to tell people you’re in charge, you aren’t.
Anyway, the ed-heads went on to prove just how much they all love charter schools…by unanimously passing a statewide ban on any new ones. Lovely.
At the core of the argument in favor of killing charter schools was the point that Nevada currently has one full-time employee overseeing five state-sponsored charter schools and how impossible it is for this one staffer to handle such a burden. But then someone actually had the brass to ask how Nevada compares staffing-wise to neighboring Arizona.
As you may recall from my column on this yesterday, Arizona has 368 charter schools. And how many staffers does Arizona have running those 368 schools? Eight. Time for some math. 368 divided by 8, carry the 6, subtract the 5… Hmmmm, by my public school calculations that means Arizona has one staffer for every 46 existing charter schools.
Nevada has one staffer for 5 charter schools. Arizona has one staffer for every 46. Now, it seems to me that if our one guy can’t handle the burden of overseeing just 5 charter schools - each of which have their own board of directors and operating administration - that we need a new guy who can pull his own weight. In fact, I hear Joe Enge might be available!
I’ll admit I’m not smart enough or sophisticated enough to comprehend how a gargantuan behemoth of an operation like public education works, but if this one guy is truly overburdened, then instead of asking taxpayers for mo’ money to hire mo’ staff, why doesn’t the Department of Education simply take an underworked staffer over at, say, the Department of Self-Esteem or something and transfer him or her over to the charter school division? Why must the only solution to an education “problem” always be growing the blob?
Assertions to the contrary, these people simply don’t like charter schools. More importantly, the teachers union doesn’t like charter schools. So this board will do anything and everything in their power to get rid of charter schools. Indeed, the four main education bureaucrats involved in killing charter schools at last night’s meeting were all intimately involved in killing the Halima Academy charter school over “paperwork” violations earlier this year.
And let’s not forget “shall,” shall we?
Nevada’s original charter school law stated that the state board of education “shall” approve the application of any charter school which met all the requirements to receive a charter. The board didn’t like that. They didn’t like being forced to approve the application of a charter school which met all the requirements for opening a charter school. So they snuck in a legislative change to the law in the last session changing the word “shall” to “may.” Which means even if a charter school applicant successfully jumps through each and every bureaucratic hoop to qualify to open a charter school, the board can now still deny the application for any reason at all…or even no reason at all.
So don’t give me this bull that these people love charter schools. They don’t. Never have. Never will. And they will continue carrying water for the teachers union and take every opportunity to close down existing charter schools (except maybe the one in Las Vegas run by Andre Agassi, just for show) or stop any new ones from opening.
Now, I’m not a huge fan of charter schools because charter schools are still part of the failed government-school monopoly. But they’re far better than many “regular” public schools and at least give parents some level of choice - though that choice is kinda like “You can have your Edsel in any color you want, as long as it’s black.”
No, charter schools aren’t the answer. School vouchers or tuition tax credits are the answer. And home-schooling. But something is better than nothing. Which is exactly what the board of education gave parents who want a choice in education last night: Nothing.
At 9:58 p.m. last night, the Nevada State Board of Education declared Nevada’s charter school movement dead. The “doctors” killed the patient. It will now be up to the Legislature, which doesn’t meet again until 2009, to try to resurrect the corpse.
But don’t hold your breath. The Democrat-controlled state Assembly hasn’t been any more a champion of charter schools since the original watered-down law was passed ten years ago than the Board of Education. So don’t expect any miracles from Barbara Buckley & Company anytime soon. Parents and students who want a better education and school choice are screwed. It’s just that simple.
The meeting concluded on perhaps the most surreal note imaginable. Board member Mini-Reid wrapped everything up by thanking all the charter school folks who showed up to testify on behalf of charter schools and asked them to invite her to come see their charter schools. Apparently the author of the “Kill Charters” moratorium and Chair(wo)man of the Sub-Committee on Charter Schools…has never actually been in a charter school. Unbelievable.
But she loves them!
Loves them to death.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
Board of Education member Barbara Myers, who sat through the entire debate and public comments over the “Kill Charters” proposal, got up and left just before the vote on the moratorium was actually taken. Real profile in courage there, huh?
Posted on December 2nd, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
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