By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… I guess I will have to admit I am a little jealous. No a whole lot jealous.

I have just read two articles that set me on edge.

The first dealt with the designation of the Advance Technology School in Las Vegas as a Blue Ribbon school.

Don’t get me wrong; ATS is a great school and deserves the award. It has consistently made its Yearly Annual Progress goals. One hundred percent of their students pass proficiency and graduate.

I would expect nothing less of a school that is allowed to set a minimum GPA and require a test for admittance. They are able to hand pick their students. Discipline problems are screened out of the populace. Outside activities like band and athletics are no distraction, as a student who wants to participate in those activities can become a burden on the school for which they are zoned.

In this atmosphere, ATS has been highly successful and that success has been rewarded by the Superintendent nominating them for National Blue Ribbon status.

Let me suggest to Mr. Jones that MVHS meets those standards and does it without a handpicked student body.

My other bit of jealousness has been caused by the additional funding made available to the “turn around” schools in Las Vegas.

I have no issue with the district recognizing the problems of these schools and making special efforts to solve these problems associated with the underperforming schools. I truly believe the extra 400 or so dollars made available per student is probably a good thing.

What I find incredible is that during that same time, MVHS students had their support cut by $775 per student. The school will have approximately $433,000 dollars less for general operating funds for the 2011-2012 school year. A 13.5% cut in funds. One of the major results is the loss of four teaching positions. A 12% cut in faculty positions.

How is this difference being made up so the students will not feel the effect? Not by anything the school district is doing. The major brunt of this shortfall is being picked up by the teachers. They will each teach one more period and in doing so they have, in effect, created a little more than four teacher positions out of thin air. With the school board asking the teachers district wide to give up salary and benefits, our teachers have willingly added to their burdens.

That is what makes MVHS a real Blue Ribbon school. We have a staff of teachers who have a commitment to the children of our valley. When you get a chance, be sure to let them know you appreciate their efforts even if the school board does not.

No one asked me but… I have been following the story of the three American tourists who started a hike in Iraq and ended it in an Iranian prison. They were taken prisoner by Iranian forces in August 2009. The Iranian authorities contend that the three illegally entered the country of Iran. For that, they were arrested and imprisoned.

This is what some countries do to people who enter their country illegally. What a novel idea.

Shane Bauer, from Minnesota was in the Middle East as a freelance journalist. Joshua Fattal, an environmental worker from Oregon, was reportedly curious about his father’s native Iraq. Sarah Shourd from California was a writer and teacher based in the Middle East. Now in a move that would do justice to dumb, dumber and dumbest, these three decided that they should take a hike in the mountains between Iraq and Iran.

I would love to have heard that brilliant discussion. However, one might suspect the rational thought process in people who go to Iraq to begin with.

Hello! There is a major war going on in Iraq; and Iran is a hostile rogue nation. Now let’s go take a walk between the two. We will be safe. We are Americans. Who would dare bother us?

Sarah Shourd was released last year after a $500,000 bail (ransom) was paid. Iran stated they were releasing her for humanitarian and medical reasons.

No one is saying who paid the half million dollars. A U.S. official told the Associated Press that neither the U.S. government nor the families of the hikers paid the ransom. I still have a sneaking suspicion that you and I paid the bail.

The purpose of bail is to ensure an individual will show up for trial. I don’t believe for a minute that the Iranian government thought they would ever see Sarah Shourd again. When it was time for the trial, she jumped bail and refused to return to Iran. Her jumping bail was a foregone conclusion. Where is Dog the Bounty Hunter when we need him?

Whoever posted the bail knew they were going to lose their money.

The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has indicated, through a television interview with Ann Curry, NBC news reporter, that within the next few days the other two hikers will be released. Speculation is that the fee for their release is a half million dollars apiece.

Ahmadinejad uses the word bail to indicate the purpose of the million dollars. I might remind him that they have been convicted and you don’t pay bail once you are convicted. The proper term might be a half million dollar fine in lieu of jail time. However, the real term is ransom.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is nothing more than a Somali pirate posing as the president of a country.

I find it hard to sympathize with these two and I really have no desire to see a million dollars of American money spent to secure their release. If they can raise the ransom from private sources, more power to them. If the U.S. Government pays the ransom, these men or their families should be required to pay the money back. The government could establish something like the college loan program and by the time they are one hundred years old, the American people will get their money back.