MUTH’S TRUTHS

The sorry state of public education in Nevada.

We have a teachers union pushing a tax increase to give its members more money, purportedly to improve the educational performance of our students. This is like thinking that simply paying the basketball coach more money means the team will win more games. The two are completely unrelated.

We also have a state board of education voting to ban any new charter schools, even as demand for these alternatives sky-rockets.

And you have 17 school district superintendents telling the governor they just can’t make do with a 15 percent increase in their budgets; that they absolutely, positively HAVE to have a 20 percent increase.

If only we were more like Washington, DC.

Did I just write that?

No, seriously. If you want to read about what it’s going to take to dramatically improve public education in Nevada, take a page from the new superintendent of public schools, Michelle Rhee, in the nation’s capital.

So far “she’s taken on the unions, the city council and, most recently, hundreds of angry central-office workers,” all with the blessing of the city’s mayor who promised to back her up “as long as she acted in the best interests of the kids…no matter how loud the screaming of the unions and community groups.”

And rather than fearing school choice, Rhee embraces it…including vouchers. “I would NEVER, as long as I am in this role, do anything to limit another parent’s ability to make a choice for their child,” she says. “Ever.”

Rhee adds, “I’m a huge proponent of choice, but I’m also an unbelievably competitive person, and my goal is…to create schools within the system that I believe are the most compelling choices.”

THIS is the kind of person Nevada’s failing public school systems need. Cloning, anyone?

Read the full Michelle Rhee story HERE in the Wall Street Journal.

Posted on December 23rd, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National