Friday, March 29, 2013
Mathematically Impossible
If I were doing a statistical analysis of what the
probabilities and even the possibilities are that nine totally
incompetent people could come together to set policy for an institution
as important as the Clark County
School District, I’m sure I’d give up my profession when I learned that
the statistical analysis would show that getting together that
particular combination of people is mathematically impossible.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Return His Phone Calls
State Superintendent Guthrie seems to have run into
the same problem that all of us interested in K through 12 education
have. He can’t get the Clark County School Board chairwoman, Carolyn
Edwards, to return his phone calls. It’s not
that Carolyn refuses to return those phone calls because she believes
that she alone with that group of other idiots on the school board can
save Clark County school system from extinction. Carolyn’s refusal to
talk to Guthrie is more likely to be
the result of her fear that Guthrie will find out that she is merely an empty suit.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
...help Clark County schools
Elaine Wynn is rich beyond belief, exceedingly
talented and certainly very bright. She outdoes me in all three areas.
It may be that I’m not smart enough to understand her approach to
solving education’s problems, but I believe that without
an ability to gather a multitude of people together, even Elaine won’t
be able to help Clark County schools.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Guthrie & Wynn
State Superintendent Guthrie tells me he’s selected
Elaine Wynn as his savior of Clark County Education. I hope he’s not
expecting too much. Elaine is a super-star, but unfortunately is a
one-man-band who believes she alone can do it
all. She may be right.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Jim Guthrie
I was visited by State Superintendent of Education
Jim Guthrie. He’s the first superintendent I’ve ever met. He seems
like a good guy who has the beginnings of an understanding of Clark
County’s K through 12 problems. He promises to
keep me informed. I believe he speaks the truth.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Week-Long Rant
This is the last day of my week-long rant about the
Clark County School District Board. But fear not, I will continue to
pound on this group of incompetents. There is not one I would let near
the operation of my television stations, or
the banks, or colleges with which I’ve been associated for twenty
years.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Clark County School Board Members
I have interviewed several of the Clark County
School Board members. We never reached the point of talking about
solutions to the system’s problems. Not one even understood the
problems, much less, how to solve them.
I thought I was talking to members of the student council at one of the local high schools—actually the local grade schools.
How can you, as a member of Southern Nevada’s
parents allow this band of bozos to destroy the future of the great
majority of Southern Nevada’s students?
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Clark County School Board
I’ve been on 7 bank boards and the boards of more
than a dozen of the top law schools in this country; I hold nine
honorary doctorates from the best colleges for my work in education over
the last 20 years; and I think
I did a pretty good job as Nevada’s Chancellor of higher education.
In all my education life, I have never seen a board
like the Clark County School Board that lacked education, experience,
judgment and creativity, and had no plans or abilities to solve its
operating and financial problems.
Dwight Jones was a disaster. Now the board chooses
to name one from the management group that has been unable to solve the
system’s problems as its interim superintendent. This decision is
totally void of any judgment. This band of incompetents
should be ashamed of itself, but even worse, you should be ashamed of
electing this board.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Interim Superintendant
I’m sure that many of you will say it’s only sour
grapes which resulted from my not being begged to become the interim
superintendent. It would be much easier on me if I just went about my
business and stopped caring about
Clark County K-12. But I can’t, because I graduated from Las Vegas
High School nearly 60 years ago, I’ve watched my three children go to
school in Southern Nevada and it saddens me to see this education system
that might have had serious problems in any case,
be destroyed by a public that continues to elect a school board that is
a combination of the most incompetent leaders in this country.
Why do we care so little that we elect this group of bozos and turn them loose to destroy our children?
Monday, March 18, 2013
K Through 12
I’m not sure that any one group, even many groups, a
strong Nevada legislature and a supportive governor can do anything to
save K through 12 in Southern Nevada. Rescuing it will be like a man in
a rowboat throwing a lifeline
to the Titanic. I do, however, have some ideas that might prevent the
system from drowning all of its students.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Ruben Kihuen
Nevada
Senator Ruben Kihuen, Chair of Nevada Senate Revenue committee won’t
return our reporter’s calls about mining taxation. After weeks of
reaching out, we are still
waiting.
#SJR15 #NVLeg @RubenKihuen
Thursday, March 14, 2013
We Will Not Back Down
What
is blackmail and bullying? When big mining pulls ad money because they
are under scrutiny. What do they have to hide? We will not back down.
#SJR15 #NVLeg
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
How Mining Gets Taxed?
Would
you like a say in how mining gets taxed? Tell your legislators to pick
up SJR 15 and run with it now. By the way, many of your elected
officials take big mining’s
money while we wait.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
New Superintendent
I am eagerly awaiting
the return of Elaine Wynn and her
sidekick, Maureen Peckman, who will with trumpets blaring announce to
the Clark County School Board who Elaine’s choice for the new
superintendent and how they are to vote to
confirm her appointment.
SJR 15
Your
Nevada Governor is reported to have received $43,500 from mining
interests. Nevada State Democratic Party reported to have received
$125,000.00 from mining. All
the while, SJR 15 sits waiting.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Basketball Coach
Cliff Findlay attended the Gonzaga-Loyola Marymount
Basketball game in Las Vegas at the same time UNLV was losing to last-place,
Fresno State.
I wonder if Cliff was looking at the Gonzaga coach
in hopes of replacing Rice.
Next Hire As Superintendent
I understand that Elaine Wynn and Maureen Peckman
are already out of state visiting their next hire as superintendent of schools
of Clark County.
I wish them luck and hope this new superintendent
will be far superior to the one they previously appointed as superintendent
several years ago.
Jones was a disaster. I know Elaine and Maureen would never make
the same mistake twice.
SJR 15
Are
Nevada legislators working for you or for big mining? This week, I’ll
reveal how much money your elected officials are taking from big mining
as SJR 15 sits waiting.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Investing In UNLV
Not one southern Nevada family has done more to support its education system than the Fertittas. I have no idea what their future contributions will be to support
UNLV. I do know that if they decided to make a $100 million dollar or
more gift to UNLV it
would raise another billion dollars from those who will want to climb
aboard the ship.
UNLV must develop a strategy to persuade the Fertittas that the future
of UNLV would be guaranteed if they and others like them would invest
substantial amounts
they are capable of investing in UNLV.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Partners In The Future Success
Sheldon
Adelson and his wife, a very fine medical doctor, have a net worth
larger than the net worth of many countries. And yet, with it being
easy for Sheldon and
his wife to give UNLV $350 million dollars, we have failed to enlist
the Adelsons as partners in UNLV’s future. How can we fix the mistakes
we have made and persuade the Adelsons to become partners in the future
success of UNLV? I would like your thoughts
and advice.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Attract The Big Money
What
did we do wrong? Why aren’t we able to persuade Kirk Kerkorian, a
multimillionaire, to give UNLV at least $200 million dollars? I assume
he didn’t believe
in the value or future of the school.
A gift by Kerkorian of one to two hundred million dollars would have
brought numerous other similar gifts by southern Nevadans that would
have resulted in an
avalanche of support.
We need to learn how and why we failed and what we could have done differently to attract the big money to UNLV.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Selling UNLV’s Potential Success
UNLV
began as a college with great potential. One of the primary reasons
was the financial support of Perry Thomas, Jerry Mack and Irwin
Molasky. Their names
alone gave great credibility to the future success of UNLV. Those
gifts should have brought a multitude of gifts that would have
jumpstarted UNLV to become competitive nationally. Unfortunately there
was little follow up by the multitude of rich southern
Nevadans.
We need to restart UNLV’s program to invent itself and include the rich folks to build
UNLV into a highly-ranked nationally respected university.
Had
we done a better job of selling UNLV’s potential success, we might have
enticed Jerry Herbst, one of the very wealthy southern Nevada business
people, into showing
his support by giving the school $100 million dollars or more.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Faith & Support
What effect can a
major donor have on the future success of a university? Assume that
Elaine Wynn decided to make a $100 million dollar gift to a specific
department or college at UNLV. What effect would
that have on UNLV’s future? First, the department or college would
then have the ability to expand and improve to become competitive
nationally. But just as important as the $100 million dollars is the
faith and support Elaine Wynn’s name alone would give
to UNLV’s future. If she could put that kind of money into the system,
I’m sure others would follow and soon UNLV would become a new
challenger in the world of higher education.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Individual Wealth
In the 60 years I’ve lived in Southern Nevada we’ve
had many boom periods and more than our share of bust periods. But
overall, when you compare our economy with the economies of all the rest
of the fifty states, we’ve been far ahead of
most in having a productive economy.
Yet with all the financial success that Nevada has
had, we’ve never developed the ability to understand that while the
Nevada economy created individual wealth, many of those individuals did
not reciprocate by supporting the very system
that created them.
Think what we would be if Nevada’s rich folks had
decided to invest the money they made in Nevada back into its education
system.
I would love to see the University of Nevada School
of Medicine change its name to the Benny Binion School of Medicine
because Benny’s son Jack had written a check to the school for 100
million dollars or more.
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