Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Miller says students need a better break

Every student in Clark County deserves a better educational environment than exists today, says Gov. Bob Miller.

"We expect too little of our students and our standards are too general," Miller said at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon Wednesday. "Every student deserves better than what we are giving them now."

The governor recently returned from a two-day education summit among the nation's governors and top business leaders. The chamber luncheon attracted 200 people, including Clark County Superintendent Brian Cram and other top leaders in Nevada education.

Cram said change is necessary "because you can't build enough prisons to accommodate the growing number of disgruntled, poorly educated people."

"I feel for those enslaved by having an inferior education," Cram said. "They are enslaved. No wonder they are angry and outraged."

Cram said the educational system needs to be fortified "if we don't want anarchy in the streets."

The superintendent said it's time to stop paying for welfare and crime and fix the root of the problem. Educators can't do it without gaining a commitment from the community, he said.

UNLV President Carol Harter also referred to prisons in promoting the need for a better educational system.

"Education is the business of all of us for a lifetime," she said. "The cost of not believing in that is the cost of building more prisons."

She said pre-kindergarten through university studies need to be a "seamless web" to fold in the disenfranchised instead of allowing them to slip through the cracks.

Richard Jarvis, chancellor of the University and Community College System of Nevada, said, "We have to raise the expectations of the community because if they demand more of the education system, the Legislature will fund it."

Less than a third of high school graduates in the state go on to college or other education. The national average is slightly above 50 percent. Jarvis wants to close that gap through electronic means. Distance learning programs will be used to make classes more accessible, he said.

"We serve a student population that is already in the work force. We have a higher proportion of students working outside of school than any other state in the country," Jarvis said.

Richard Moore, president of the Community College of Southern Nevada, said, "We're in the business of upgrading your work force."

In a recent survey of former CCSN students, Moore said 75 percent came to receive a precise job skill. He offered business leaders at the luncheon a deal that will be hard to refuse. He promised to deliver specific training programs to meet the needs of businesses and promised not to charge them unless they were satisfied with the results.

"Now, that's a different way to run government. The way it should be run," Moore said.

Miller

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