Letter: Southern Nevada must demand equal education funding

Perhaps a policy of arrogance and unaccountability in Northern Nevada allows the dean of Nevada's medical school to waste $1 million in taxpayer money only to be "demoted" to a faculty position still paying the old salary of $227,000 a year.

If this million-dollar blunder cannot be blamed on this dean, maybe we need to blame UNR President Joe Crowley or perhaps his boss, University System Chancellor Richard Jarvis.

To my consternation I discovered that Southern Nevada contains most of the people of Nevada and brings in most of the tax revenue, but since Northern Republicans like Sen. Bill Raggio have controlled the Legislature there has been no equality in funding for higher education in Nevada.

Today, "Tumbleweed Tech" has been replaced with UNLV and CCSN serving a convincing majority of Nevada's college students. If the South found itself at a population disadvantage I know that we should not treat Northerners as second-class Nevadans by giving them less money per student.

When Gov. Kenny Guinn offered to fund the entire University System at 2 percent growth, the North, which is growing at 2 percent, was satisfied. Unfortunately, the South projects growth of 6 percent, which means that the South must do without even basic funding for growth.

Do Guinn and the entire Southern delegation realize that they will have an extremely hard time getting re-elected if they ignore demands for equity from their constituents?

The two-thirds of Nevada's college students studying in the South deserve an equal share of education funds. If the Northerners disagree with me, I challenge them to prove why a student in Southern Nevada deserves less than a student in Northern Nevada.

This chicanery from the North must stop now.

Aaron Clemens, UNLV student senator

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