No One Asked Me But… (September 15, 2021)

By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… The Clark County School District (CCSD) has been awarded $777,000,000 dollars of federal grant money to alleviate COVID-related problems evident in the last 18 month’s interruption of the regular school setting. CCSD Superintendent Jesus Jara is perplexed as to how best to use that $777,000,000 windfall.

So, he put out a survey asking for input. Here is my input. Let me suggest he do something unique and advise the Clark County Board of Trustees to simply follow the law!

Nevada Revised Statute 388G.660 requires that 85% of unrestricted dollars of the CCSD must be allotted to individual school precincts, i.e. directly to local schools. Money may only be identified as restricted if it is required by state or federal law.

For all intents and purposes this $777 million can be easily considered “unrestricted funds.” It is money that is designed to help individual schools remediate their individual students who have fallen behind due to COVID regulations.

Who would be better at identifying unique needs of a school community than the administration, staff, and parents of those unique students? The determination as to how to best use this over $2,000 per student should be left in the hands of the local School Organizational Team (SOT) as established under NRS. 388.720.

This team is made up of the local principal, at least two but not more than four teachers or other licensed personnel elected by their peers, one to two members who are local non-licensed district employees, and a number of parents who total 50% of the committee.

If the Board of Trustees were to follow the law they could siphon off $116.5 million for Central Office use before they disbursed, on a per pupil basis, the other approximately $660 million to the individual school precincts for the SOT committees to use in dealing with the unique problems within their own school settings.

For schools like Moapa Valley and Virgin Valley High Schools that would mean at the little over $2000 per student and, therefore, the SOT committees of these schools would have a little over $1 million to alleviate the unique problems of COVID within their school community. That would go a long way!

No one asked me but… I have come to the conclusion that the basic purpose of the American school system has become day care for children between the ages of five (soon to be three) and eighteen.

In Las Vegas, the average cost of child care is $16,380 per year which is only $350 lower than the average rent payment of $16,740 per year. The demand for schools to re-open across America has basically been a call to open the public day care centers to house the children of America so both parents can get back to work. Little is being discussed about the harm to education that COVID regulations have caused.

For a number of years I have had a growing suspicion that the American public sees their tax dollars supporting the public school system as a holding tank for their youngsters with a bonus of any education they may receive.

After all, the major cry when the schools are closed is that there is no one to watch the children and that juvenile crime will increase. Furthermore, with the schools closed, parents must pay additional fees for private day care. Their children will be either unsupervised for seven to eight hours a day or one parent must quit work to keep an eye on their child. The reasoning goes that since they have already been taxed to pay for the day care, as represented by the public school, this is an unfair burden on the family budget.

How much does public day care (school) cost the parents of Clark County? The following is based on the Clark County School District Tentative Budget document for 2021-2022. The total net budget is just under $6 billion. The District projects an enrollment of just under 310,000 students. That amounts to approximately $19,300 per student.

The federal government’s COVID relief package increases that per pupil funding to over $21,000 per student.

No one asked me but… The CCSD Board of Trustees voted to have the Superintendent develop a plan requiring all CCSD employees to be vaccinated against the COVID. There are a number of employees who have indicated that they will resign rather than be vaccinated.

I am not going to argue the merits of vaccination or non-vaccination. I have been vaccinated and will get the booster, though I am not convinced that any of this makes much sense. Government health officials have not carried out the vaccination campaign in a manner that fosters confidence in the information they are dispensing.

There are those who object to forced vaccination on the grounds that the school district should not mandate that they take an experimental injection that has not been proven successful and of which no one knows the long term effect.

CCSD is already some 7,000 to 11,000 teachers short (Dr. Jara’s admitted figure), and can little afford the loss of more teachers.

So, let me make a suggestion that may be completely ridiculous but might solve the problem. How about setting up one or two K-12 schools where the unvaccinated teachers can teach. Those schools could be run by administrators and support staff that are anti-vaxers. These schools would be attended only by students whose parents are anti-vaxers. All participants would be required to sign a “hold harmless” waiver absolving CCSD from all responsibility for their health. The District could establish bus routes manned by unvaccinated bus drivers.

Or how about this idea: let an unvaccinated administrator set up his own K-12 unvaccinated charter school and let the District forfeit the approximately $13,500 per student Gen/SPED fund dollars to this administrator.

Don’t take this wrong. I am not an anti-vaxer. I would not surrender my teaching position over this issue, and I will take my booster when it is available.

However, I do find this issue a great discussion item over how much individual freedom a person must give up for the social, political, and economic security to be found in the society in which he chooses to work and live. This is really the great dilemma, whether consciously or unconsciously, for all men in all their political and social settings.

Thought of the week… There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
– John Adams