By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… The Clark County School District (CCSD) has purchased a $3 million computer game to improve the math scores of some low performing elementary schools.

About twenty percent of math instruction time in these schools is spent with students on computers playing a math game featuring a friendly little penguin. The Sewell Elementary Principal has been quoted as saying, “This generation is very visual and reward-based. Students love that cute little penguin character that helps them with math concepts.”

Far be it from me to criticize any program that seems to be working, and the district says there have been improved test scores of from eight to fourteen percent in the schools using this program. For that, I say hallelujah! I am in favor of doing whatever works. Education may be one area where the end justifies the means.

Being old and set in my ways, the first question that came to my mind is: What if the $3 million that the program cost had been spent on increasing the number of teachers available to those students? If you take the average salary and benefits for a Clark County School teacher, three million dollars would provide for approximately 60 additional math teachers.

The improvement that would be achieved by this increase in teachers is, of course, speculation. However, this is the kind of speculation that comes to my mind when I see the district spending money for gimmicks with the hopes that it will solve problems. When the district pours $2 million extra into the facilities of a poor performing school as well as an additional $1 million in the operating budget plus paying the replacement teachers an extra $1700 a year with hopes of improving test scores, these kind of thoughts creep into my mind.

Let me assure you unless the students in those schools decide to rebel and tank their scores, there will be improvement. I must wonder, however, if the improvement would not have taken place had the old regime been given the same benefits.

No one asked me but…Running the risk of being put in the camp of the haters of the illegal immigrant, I must say I find it incredulous that Senator Harry Reid is supporting illegal immigrants’ claim to the Child Tax Credit of $1800 per family.

There is a Republican proposal in the United States Senate that would require people claiming this tax credit to have a social security number. Apparently $4.2 billion a year is being paid to “aliens residing without authorization.” (Harry Reid’s new title for illegal immigrants.) Harry believes to stop this payment would be punishing the children who are citizens.

The Treasury Department stated that in 2010 these refunds went to 2.3 million people who filed tax returns but didn’t have a social security number. I was not aware that one could hold a meaningful job without a social security number let alone file income tax forms without one. The first item I was always asked when filling out documents of employment was my social security number. But then again, I was not aware one could file for the office of the Presidency of the United States without producing a valid birth certificate. Stupid me.

But when you realizes that this program, incorrectly called a tax credit program, does not require a person to have a job, let alone pay taxes to receive a tax credit, one should not be surprise that you do not have to be a citizen to collect the tax credit.

I am at a loss to understand how a person who pays no income tax can receive a tax refund. A refund might well suggest you paid something to be refunded. I guess that is why it is called a tax credit. You receive it as a credit for merely breathing in and out. This is just another way of sharing the wealth.

No one asked me but…President Obama has angered the leadership of the Catholic Church. This is probably not a good idea this close to an election.

Much of the Catholic membership is in the ranks of the Democratic Party and while the church does not have the influence on its membership it did when I was a youngster, the Pope still swings some weight with the membership.

I can recall when the Catholic Church openly and regularly condemned birth control as strongly as it does abortion today. While church members have pretty much ignored the church leadership on the issue of birth control, the leadership has not lessened its opposition.

The issue is no longer: Can the federal government require private business to offer medical insurance? We have seen that apparently they can. If a person works a certain number of hours and the company they work for is of a certain size, the employer is required by law to offer insurance of some kind.

I will not argue the constitutionality of that policy though I believe one could do so. I have come to the conclusion those in Washington will find a way to interpret the Constitution as they wish.

The Supreme Court is presently dealing with the issue of whether or not the government can now extend the insurance requirement to each individual. I am not sure when or how medical insurance became a right of every American citizen, but that is the argument the government is presently making.

A few years ago, they made education the right of every American and apparently, they are now creating the right to health care. Since God created man from dust, the government now believes that it can create the right to health care from hot air.

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