By DR. LARRY MOSES
No one asked me but… I started watching the Senate Hearings on the Russian hacking into the American election process during the 2016 presidential election. I should have stopped watching after all three of the intelligence experts made opening statements that they could not make a definitive statement until the final report was completed in the near future.
However, I held on for another 20 minutes until Senator John McCain asked James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, if the Russians had manipulated the election. Mr. Clapper stated that there is no evidence of any changing of votes due to Russian hacking. I believe that should have ended the hearing. Of course it did not.
I don’t believe the issue of hacking the Democratic National Convention computers nor that of John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, is of any consequence. However, I do believe that it is a smoke screen to cover up the Russian, Chinese, North Korean, Iranian, etc. hacking of Secretary of State Clinton’s unsecured server.
I am much more concerned about the classified information made available to our enemies than I am about the fact that a friendly press leaked debate questions to Hillary Clinton.
This Senate hearing is one of the greatest sleight-of -hand tricks since Houdini. Now you see it, now you don’t.
We run around yelling ‘The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!’ yet we ignore the corruption from within.
FBI Director Comey dealt the American justice system a major blow when he indicated that Secretary Clinton had committed a criminal act. But he would not recommend an indictment because the perpetrator was Hillary Clinton.
I find it strange that a Senate hearing was called to investigate the hacking of the DNC while the Senate has completely ignored the possibility that our enemies hacked the unsecured private server of the Secretary of State.
No one asked me but… Some people believe that I am too competitive for my own good. My family accuses me of being a poor loser. I must admit to this.
I do not like to lose. I firmly believe there is nothing to learn from losing, other than how to lose.
I was the principal of two different high schools. Those schools won right at 20 state championships. While I would like to take credit for this, I must admit that it was the dedicated teacher/coaches and the student athletes that made this possible. I did not coach, nor play, in a single one of those events. Those schools played for other state championships and finished in second, third, or fourth place. I was never pleased to come home with less than first place.
Let me qualify that with the fact that these championships came within the context of playing on a level playing field. The MVHS volleyball team finished second in the state this year. However, this was done on a far from level playing field.
The Clark County School District and the Nevada Interscholastic Athletic Association have decided that it is fair to ask schools with student bodies of 500 students to compete with schools of over 2,500 students. I must commend students and teacher/coaches in schools like Virgin Valley and Moapa Valley for not only fielding teams under these conditions but remaining competitive in these endeavors.
This brings to my mind the movie 300. The plot revolves around King Leonidas who leads 300 Spartans into battle against the Persian “god-King” Xerxes and his invading army of more than 300,000 soldiers.
No one asked me but… My competitive nature took another hit when the latest report of Education Week ranked the State of Nevada as the very bottom state in education in the United States. This ranking took into consideration school finance, K-12 achievement, and a student’s chance for success.
Since over 70 per cent of the education in the State of Nevada takes place in the Clark County School District, this is an indictment of the District. Being a thirty year employee of CCSD, I take this personally.
State Superintendent Steve Canavero stated that he could not dispute the findings of Education Week’s Quality Counts but that recent reforms instituted by the State Legislature, to be imposed on CCSD, will go a long way in improving the standing of the State of Nevada. Apparently he is not aware of the fact that all of the reforms have been negated either by the courts or by Democrat legislators.
Superintendent Canavero stated there was a need to stay the course. It reminds me of the story of the Captain of an Aircraft Carrier who was informed that radar showed an obstacle believed to be a smaller vessel in his direct path.
He radioed a message to the obstacle, “You need to change course I am an Aircraft Carrier.”
He received a message back, “You need to change course I am a lighthouse.”
It makes one wonder when CCSD figures out that if they keep the course they are on they will run into the lighthouse again. This cry for the status quo, championed by the State Superintendent and the CCSD Board of School Trustees, is a cry for disaster.
Even though the CCSD spent $16,884 per student in 2017, there will be a great hue and cry for more money from the 2017 legislature.
But the problem is not a financial one; it is a management problem. The School Board of Trustees is in denial. Things are not good and will not get better until they address the district’s educational problems.
I have attended more school board meetings than I care to remember. One of the features of these meetings is to have students come before the Trustees with their success stories. It is time to bring the 6,000 students who failed to get a diploma last year before the Trustees and let them face their failure.
I have to agree that giving a failing school over to a for-profit, out of state charter school is a poor answer to the problem. Let us forget about the failed effort to reorganize the CCSD, Achievement School Districts, and Educational Savings Accounts. There are seven Trustees and six schools that have been identified for take over by the state Achievement School District. Let’s add a school to the list and assign a Trustee to each school and make them directly responsible for the improvement of that school. Let’s see how inventive and competitive these trustees are.
Thought of the week…Education is not a matter of life and death – it is more important than that.
