‘I gotta have mine’ attitude far too prevalent

I attended last month’s town hall discussion of the governor’s proposed cuts in education at Green Valley High School. As you would expect, the bulk of the audience was from the side that sees themselves as losing if there are cuts made: teachers, students and the like.

As citizens took their turns to speak, I heard a constant flow of specious, immaterial and false arguments, tugging on the emotions. Facts were rare. And the most common theme seemed to be “take from someone else, not from me.” The crowd cheered all of these.

The other side was heard from only occasionally.

One of those was Victor Joecks of the Nevada Policy Research Institute. Interesting that the one time the crowd was disrespectful to a speaker was when he, using statistical facts, argued that history shows more money does not equate to better education. No, they didn’t want to hear that. Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good emotional argument.

While Mr. Joecks heard boos, applause was heard for such absurd assertions as “the broken system must be funded” and “less money won’t make it better.” (Well, more money certainly hasn’t made it better.)

It all makes one wonder if we’re facing more of a cultural crisis rather than one of a financial nature. Regardless of the state of the Nevada budget — not to mention so many citizens unemployed, businesses struggling and the general economy in a terrible state — we shouldn’t dare expect any cut in funding for the schools. “I gotta have mine, regardless,” seems to be the mantra.

William Henggeler

Henderson

Mired in ignorance

To the editor:

Patrick R. Gibbons just doesn’t see the forest for the trees in his scathing attack on higher education (“Does higher education drive our economic growth?” Sunday Review-Journal). No mention is made of the fact that UNLV’s enrollment has been increasing as students seek to improve their skills and employability during this recession. Neither is any mention made that UNLV has already sustained deep cuts that are seriously affecting its core mission.

California is in deep crisis not because of its great universities but because of corporate mismanagement and outright theft from its citizens by companies such as Enron. Despite this, California is still doing far better than Nevada economically.

As far as Mr. Gibbons comments on the “top 100 universities,” we have 50 states. How much can be honestly compared when examining the economic impact from this large number of universities which is almost like comparing the entire United States to itself? How about looking at the states with bottom 100 universities or states that minimally fund higher education (per capita)?

One critical piece of information (of many) lacking in Mr. Gibbons’ diatribe against higher education is that states with “Ivy League” schools deliberately export their students to states (such as Nevada) where they often take top jobs and support their Ivy league alma maters handsomely to such an extent that Harvard, e.g., has an endowment worth more than General Motors. In Massachusetts, which has some of the world’s best educational institutions, education is one of the state’s and the nation’s largest economic engines and the state is faring far better than Nevada with its nearly 15 percent unemployment rate.

Finally, as a member of UNLV’s admissions committee and the General Education Task Force (GETF), I am insulted by Mr. Gibbons’ insinuation that UNLV is a “white” upper class institution that cares nothing for its underrepresented students and can personally attest to UNLV’s admirable efforts to give all of our state’s students a quality education regardless of their socioeconomic status. The problems that he mentions are endemic to our entire national K-12 educational system.

Also, UNLV is a nontraditional institution with a majority of students living off campus and often working multiple jobs trying to make ends meet and afford their tuition. Without the ability to concentrate and focus on learning, it’s very hard to finish and obtain a degree in a timely manner. In the GETF, we are working hard to enhance our incoming students’ educational experience in the first and second years with the goal of improving our retention rates and guaranteeing that our students will receive a solid foundation of critical thinking/analytical problem solving/communication skills, core knowledge, and be motivated and inspired for lifelong learning which is necessary in today’s ever-changing world. That said, making these changes will be extremely difficult when UNLV’s funding will likely be further severely reduced.

Today, sadly, universities are the few institutions in this country that actually perform fundamental scientific research — the fruits of which have largely made our nation what it is today and on which our economy, national security, and well being all depend. Without continuing support for higher education, we will stultify our national progress and go down a vicious spiral of ever-diminishing returns.

Education represents one of the few means for ordinary Americans to succeed and be informed about our complex world. Do we honestly want to have most Americans mired in ignorance or shall we allow them the opportunity to achieve their natural potential via education? Efforts to kill education will ultimately destroy our democracy.

Michael Pravica

Las Vegas

The writer is an associate professor of physics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.