No One Asked Me But… (May 19, 2021)

By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… I was relieved to find that our dictatorial government has now decided that a pandemic that killed approximately .04 percent of the world’s population and approximately 1.6 percent of the American population is now under control in the United States.

This my friends is not a quarter of the world’s population of the Bubonic Plague or even the American death toll of the Spanish Flu of 1918. This is not to say that the death of anyone due to COVID was not a tragedy for friends and family.

The “all-knowing” Center for Disease Control and Prevention has declared fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask in most indoor and outdoor settings. While I was not fond of the mask or vaccination, do not take this column as an attack on masking or vaccination. I am not against either; what I am opposed to is government mandates and government over reach in penalize those who do not comply with “executive orders” from on high. This reminds me of the time when 3-D movies first came out and one was required to wear special glasses to see the 3-D effect. When a producer was asked if the public would put up with having to wear the glasses, he replied “They will wear toilet seats around their necks if we so demand.” He was wrong! The CDC was not!

Apparently, the legislative branches of both State and Federal government have become so dysfunctional it has become necessary for governance by Presidential and Gubernatorial decree. I do not believe that was the way our Founding Fathers meant for this country to be governed. You may well argue that the only President who did not issue an executive order was William Henry Harrison who died 32 days after taking office. However, earliest executive orders were issued to facilitate the role of the President as the enforcer of the laws passed by Congress; not to create new laws.

Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, who only two weeks ago insisted that one must continue to mask up, made the following statement. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.” President Biden followed that up with a statement that the federal government is not going to arrest people who decide not to wear a mask.

King Sisolak has accepted the CDC’s recommendations. As a result, the recommendation have become effective immediately in the State of Nevada. Nevada businesses, however, are still permitted to require patrons to mask up. This is the way it should have been from the start. The issue is not the mask or vaccination; the issue is the dictatorial manner in which the mandates were issued and enforced.

No one asked me but… Some rather interesting developments came out of the Clark County School District Board of Trustees meeting of last week. On a four to three vote, Superintendent Jara’s contract was “clarified.” That reminds one of the Superintendent who was in the hospital and his school board vote 4-3 to wish him a speedy recovery.

Dr. Jara has been contracted through Jan. 15, 2023. This means if at any time during that period the Board changes its mind and decides to remove him for anything less than malfeasance they will have to pay off the remainder of his contract at the tune of $320,000 dollars per year. Therefore, Dr. Jara is guaranteed a minimum of $960,000 dollars over the next three years, whether or not he remains the CCSD superintendent. This is not an unusual contract for school superintendents and it gives him the liberty of making decisions without fear from the Trustees who may by the change of one vote oust him.

I would not pretend to evaluate the job that the Superintendent has done for that is the job of our duly elected Board of Trustees. While I believe that he and the Board surrendered their roles as leaders of the Clark County School District to the State Superintendent and the Governor, that is merely my opinion. If indeed they could not make decision as to how the local school district should function under the pandemic, why do we waste our money on a local Board and a local Superintendent. The State of Hawaii has a state wide school district, and while I don’t advocate this, that is exactly what the Clark County Board of School Trustees has allowed to happen this last year.

In an evaluation of the Superintendent I am sure that the Board took into consideration 77 School Administrators and Professional-Technical Employees chose to retire this year, including 35 principals. That is 10 percent of all principals in CCSD opting to retire rather than serve another year under Dr. Jara. The Trustees do not seem concerned over the fact that Dr. Jara indicated earlier that under his leadership the District will have a shortage of 7000 teacher when schools open in the fall.

The board also approved several large purchases using the federal emergency money schools received for pandemic related expenses, including: a total of approximately 6.7 million dollars in what appears to be move to computerized education, not only at home but in the classroom; $1.1 million for a one-year contract with MAP Accelerator, a personalized learning platform, which will be used for mathematics in grades 3-8; $799,073 for a year-long contract with Nearpod, a digital learning platform and library. The board also approved $2.4 million of the federal stimulus money for a three-year subscription to Teaching Channel Plus, and $1.6 million for a one-year contract for GoGuardian, which blocks inappropriate content from district devices.

This may well indicate an increase of canned computer programs in the classroom requiring less professional teachers. Rather than spending $50,000 for a teacher, the District could hire high school graduates to keep students on task and to maintain discipline in the classroom. This could solve the 7000 teacher shortfall.

Bringing the child to school for canned educational program meets the basic role for the American public school system of day care and the feeding of the child. If you don’t believe that this is a true statement, I would ask you to listen to the reasons given by parents and educators to return the student back to the classroom; very little of it mentions education.

Thought of the week…“Every one of the world’s dictatorships can and does claim to be acting in the name of the people.
– Harold H. Greene