Las Vegas Sun

May 10, 2024

Letter: Teachers have no budget power

Knight Allen's piece earlier this month on public employees holding office made me chuckle with amusement. His entire argument was based on the part of the Nevada Constitution that states that a person employed by one of the three branches of government should not be "...charged with the exercise of powers..." in one of the other branches.

I can assure Mr. Allen that as a classroom teacher, I have no power whatsoever over the educational process or the monies that fund that process, outside of my classroom walls.

In fact, with the advent of No Child Left Behind, increased special-education requirements, edicts handed down by regional school-district fiefdoms and the asinine method of determining the content of the state proficiency exams, whatever power I and other classroom teachers might have had inside our classroom walls is slowly fading into the sunset.

ROBERT BENCIVENGA

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