Columnist Bill Hanlon: Politicians trying to scare voters about public education

AS I LISTEN to politicians, they seem to be coming out of the woodwork to embrace public education as their No. 1 issue. Listening to some of them, you'd think they were experts in public education.

That's interesting since some of them don't send their children to public school. My feeling is that many of them couldn't find a classroom even if they had a school map.

I am really bothered by the ads concerning violence. A few candidates would have you believe that schools aren't safe, that they are armed camps and that children aren't safe within a school facility. Of course, they plan to remedy this with a "get tough" policy.

Well, first let me say that's baloney. Most educators I know are not sitting on their hands waiting for something to happen. They, in their overcrowded classrooms, are teaching -- and their students are not wearing helmets.

These candidates are selling fear. They are trying to scare the public into voting for them.

Do arguments and fights occur in schools? Sure. Do children occasionally do dumb things? Of course. Is this behavior any different from what occurs at a neighborhood park, convenience store, fast-food restaurant or movie theater? The answer to that is yes.

It's different because educators are present and have taken precautions.

It's different because if a problem develops at school, administrators, teachers, hall monitors and sometimes school police are there in seconds to quell the disturbance. That's not true outside school.

Students who have a habit of causing problems find themselves on behavioral contract, on suspension, in alternative schools, court continuation schools or expelled. Is some candidate going to do something different?

The local school district is on top of these issues. Educators don't wait for problems to evolve -- they work to ensure they don't happen. Schools are safe.

I would venture to say that the majority of kids hear more about school violence from politicians than they see with at the school they attend.

Another ad that irks me is the one that talks about the spiraling costs of education. I wonder what these politicians plan to cut. Are they going to cut school police or hall monitors? Cafeteria workers, bus drivers or custodians? School nurses, speech therapists and psychologists?

The fact is education is more expensive today than it was when I went to school. When I took algebra, I needed a $20 textbook, a notebook and a pencil.

That same class today still requires a notebook, a pencil and a book, but the text now costs closer to $40. The also need a graphing calculator, which cost about $85 each. Add to that the overhead components and software, and you see the same algebra class you and I took has risen dramatically in cost.

Unfortunately, most politicians don't recognize those facts when comparing generations.

The facts are that educators have been working hard and already have implemented higher educational standards and safety programs.

Some politicians want to ignore the fact that test scores have gone up over the last two years and Nevada students are scoring above the national average in both the ACT and SAT exams.

Let's hope that these politicians will do a fraction of the amount of homework that students do to their facts straight.

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