LAS VEGAS, (AP) -- Boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. is a perfect 42-0 in the ring and has dodged significant jail time several times in domestic violence cases in Las Vegas and Michigan. But his courtroom streak came to an end Wednesday when a Las Vegas judge sentenced him to 90 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to a reduced battery domestic violence charge and no contest to dual harassment charges. The case stemmed from a hair-pulling, punching and arm-twisting argument with his ex-girlfriend Josie Harris while dual of their children watched in September 2010. "Punishment is appropriate," Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa said after a prosecutor complained that Mayweather has been in trouble before and hasn't faced serious consequences. "No matter who you are, you have consequences to your actions when they escalate to this level of violence," she said. Good behavior could knock several weeks off Mayweather's sentence. but he will likely serve most of the sentence set to begin Jan. 6, said Officer Bill Cassell, a Las Vegas police spokesman. Mayweather and his manager, Leonard Ellerbe, declined comment outside the courtroom. The jail time raises doubts about a possible showdown between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, a champion fighter from the Philippines against whom Mayweather's welterweight success is usually measured. A long-awaited quarrel between the dual men regarded as among the best of their generation has been delayed by stalling techniques and verbal sparring. The dual men have a defamation lawsuit pending in Las Vegas federal court stemming from statements by Mayweather that he suspects Pacquiao was taking performance-enhancing drugs. Mayweather returned in September from a 16-month layoff to continue his undefeated record with a controversial knockout of Victor Ortiz in Las Vegas. Mayweather's promoters have a May 5 date reserved against an as-yet unnamed opponent at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. But if ! Mayweath er is jailed until the end of March, it could cut into the usual eight-plus weeks he takes to train. Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, said licenses for all fighters expire upon Saturday, and most, including Mayweather, have yet to reapply for next year. He said Mayweather would be asked upon his license duplicate if he was convicted of any misdemeanors or felonies. Kizer said commissioners would then decide whether to approve or deny his license or hold a hearing to talk about it. The commission has been in contact with prosecutors and Mayweather's lawyers as cases against him have progressed, he said. "The commissioners are definitely up to speed upon it and will be when it comes time to consider any kind of application," he said. Lee Samuels, a spokesman for Pacquiao's promoter Top Rank and Bob Arum, declined comment upon Mayweather's sentencing and its possible effect upon a match. Mayweather, 34, stood still in a striped olive vest and showed no reaction as the judge sentenced him to six months in the Clark County jail then suspended half the term. She gave him credit for three days previously served in jail and ordered him to complete 100 hours of community service, pay a $2,500 fine and complete a yearlong domestic violence counseling program. The plea deal avoided trial upon felony and misdemeanor that could have gotten Mayweather 34 years in state prison if he was convicted upon all counts. Mayweather also is expected to plead no contest next week to a separate misdemeanor harassment charge involving a 21-year-old homeowner association security guard who was poked in the face during an argument about parking tickets placed upon cars outside Mayweather's house. Mayweather's lawyer, Karen Winckler, said she may appeal what she called the unusual sentence handed down Wednesday. In court, she called Mayweather "a champion in many areas" and aired a list of his good deeds, including buying toys for chil! dren for Christmas and promising to donate $100,000 to breast cancer research by the end of December. Winckler argued that the public would benefit more if Mayweather performed 100 hours of community service with children. Mayweather is also upon the hook for 40 hours of community service with the Las Vegas Habitat for Humanity Project under a South Carolina federal judge's order for dodging a deposition in a music rights lawsuit. Mayweather has a Jan. 31 deadline upon that court order. Habitat for Humanity official Catherine Barnes said Wednesday that Mayweather had not started to log the hours. Saragosa said Wednesday she was persuaded to jail Mayweather following his admission that he hit Harris and twisted her arm, and that dual of their children, ages 9 and 10, witnessed the attack. Mayweather threatened to kill or make Harris "disappear," Saragosa said, and their 10-year-old son ran from the house and jumped a back gate to fetch security. Mayweather had taken cellphones belonging to Harris and the dual boys. "Things could have gotten more out of hand than they did," the judge said. Prosecutor Lisa Luzaich cited three previous domestic violence arrests for scuffles involving Harris, with whom Mayweather has three children, and three cases involving another woman with whom Mayweather has one child. Fines were of no consequence to Mayweather, Luzaich said. Mayweather goes by the nickname "Money," and was guaranteed $25 million for the Ortiz quarrel that won him the WBC's welterweight belt. Mayweather earned more than $20 million in a previous quarrel against "Sugar" Shane Mosley. Mayweather has been arrested several times since 2002 in battery and violence cases in Las Vegas and in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich. He was convicted in 2002 of misdemeanor battery stemming from a quarrel with dual women at a Las Vegas nightclub. He received a suspended one-year jail sentence and was ordered to undergo impulse-control counseling. He was fi! ned in G rand Rapids in February 2005 and ordered to perform community service after pleading no contest to misdemeanor assault and battery for a bar fight. He was acquitted by a Nevada jury in July 2005 after being accused of hitting and kicking Harris during an argument outside a Las Vegas nightclub. He was acquitted again in October of misdemeanor allegations that he threatened dual homeowner association security guards during a parking ticket argument. Mayweather also faces a civil lawsuit in Las Vegas from dual men who allege he orchestrated a shooting attack upon them outside a skating rink in 2009. Police have never accused Mayweather of firing shots and he has never been criminally charged in the case. Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

12/29/2011

As the 2003 Las Vegas Bowl approached, Steven Jackson wasn't sure if he was preparing to play his final game for Oregon State.The junior running back knew it had the potential to be the special night for him and seven other Beavers who also played high school football in Las Vegas.It became the Christmas Eve to remember.Jackson scored five touchdowns, four on the ground, and rushed for 149 yards to lead Oregon State to the 55-14 rout of New Mexico.Immediately after the game, Jackson announced he'd forgo his senior season to enter the NFL Draft.As the Las Vegas Bowl reaches its 20-year milestone this week, Jackson's high-scoring night was voted the best performance of the first 19 games by the local six-person panel."The biggest thing before the game started, I wanted to perform big and put on the show for my family and friends who hadn't had the chance to watch me play since high school," said Jackson, who played at Eldorado High School and is closing in on his seventh 1,000-yard rushing season for the St. Louis Rams."I was thinking if I should come back for my senior season. But I had such an impressive night, we agreed it would be the nice way to go out, in the final collegiate game of my career and in my hometown."The game is now known as MAACO Bowl Las Vegas, and eighth-ranked Boise State (11-1) and Arizona State (6-6) will meet at 5 p.m. Thursday at Sam Boyd Stadium.In recognition of the 20-year milestone, the Review-Journal asked five longtime Las Vegas Bowl watchers to join this reporter in ranking the top players, events and games of the first 19 editions. The panelists were bowl president Rob Dondero, bowl executive director Tina Kunzer-Murphy, bowl executive committee member Jennifer Logan, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority chief executive officer Rossi Ralenkotter and bowl media relations director Mark Wallington.The 1995 game between Toledo and UNR doubled as the best event and the best game. Toledo won 40-37 on Wasean Tait's 2-yard touchdown run in overtime, the first game ! in what then was called Division I-A to go past regulation.There have been many memorable moments in the game's history, starting with the inaugural bowl in 1992, in which Bowling Green scored with 22 seconds remaining to beat UNR, 35-34. That game ranked No. 2 in the poll.The three games that rounded out the top five -- Brigham Young's 17-16 victory over UCLA in 2007, Wyoming's 24-21 win over the Bruins in 2004 and Utah's 17-16 victory over Fresno State in 1999 -- also were decided late.But the memories go beyond the results on the field. Aside from the first overtime game, the panelists recalled other favorite moments.Ranking No. 2 among the bowl's top events was the Air Force flyover before last season's Boise State-Utah game."We had solid rain for two days, so we kept getting calls that they weren't going to be able to come," Kunzer-Murphy said. "They were telling me five minutes before they didn't know if they were going to come in, and then they came in really low. Boise State still talks ... that's the best flyover ever."In 2002, New Mexico coach Rocky Long (now coach at San Diego State) sent in female kicker Katie Hnida midway by the first quarter to attempt an extra point against UCLA. Her kick was blocked, but Hnida's mere presence made her the first woman to appear in the I-A game. That event ranked No. 3.At the luncheon prior to the 1997 game, Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton delivered the speech that still resonates and earned the No. 4 ranking. Payton talked about his love of UNLV basketball and former coach Jerry Tarkanian, sentiments that went over big with the Caesars Palace crowd."It gives me goose bumps thinking of it now," Dondero said.Almost certainly the most important event in the bowl's history, ranking No. 5, was its first sellout for the 2005 game between Brigham Young and California, because it solidified the bowl's future.Rows of empty seats year after year had created real doubt about the game's future. But the BYU partisan crowd of 40,053 packed Sam Boyd Stadium, and the game! has bee n on firmer footing ever since. The Cougars lost that night, but became an annual holiday presence, playing in five straight Las Vegas bowls.BYU was the somewhat controversial pick in 2005, however, because it was selected with the 6-5 record over No. fifteen Texas Christian, which was 10-1 and the Mountain West Conference champion.Former Los Angeles Raiders running back Napoleon McCallum, then the new member of the committee, convinced the bowl to take the Cougars."We had never had BYU in the game in all those years, and I said, 'We're either going to have the completely oversold stadium or we're going to have the good crowd,' " Kunzer-Murphy said. "Napoleon spoke up and said, 'As the player, I can tell you this, when you come out and you have the full stadium, there is nothing better.' That kind of stuck in our heads."Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore makes his second straight Las Vegas appearance this week, putting the finishing touches on the record-setting career. Moore, who last season completed 28 of 38 passes for 339 yards and two touchdowns in the 26-3 win over Utah, was voted the second-best player in bowl history.The rest of the top five also made tremendous marks in the pros.No. 3 Marshawn Lynch rushed for 194 yards and three touchdowns in Cal's win over BYU, and he is the driving force behind the Seattle Seahawks' success.Utah State quarterback Anthony Calvillo, voted fourth, accounted for 336 yards of total offense and passed for three touchdowns in the 42-33 win over Ball State in 1993. He went on to the record-setting Canadian Football League career, his 73,412 yards passing becoming the top at any level.The one defensive player on the list, Troy Polamalu at No. 5, made 20 tackles, including three for loss, in Southern California's 10-6 loss to Utah in 2001. Polamalu, perhaps the face of the Pittsburgh Steelers' defense, was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year last season.But no one had Jackson's impact in Las Vegas. After closing his Oregon State career here, he was drafted in the fi! rst roun d by the Rams and has never looked back after withdrawal school the year early."No regrets," Jackson said. "You never know what will happen your senior year. You could get hurt. I really enjoyed the ride and what followed."Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65.

12/29/2011

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) - If you've ever been on the Las Vegas Strip for New Year's Eve, you know what it's like. Locals and tourists party in the streets, clubs, hotels and restaurants all night long. The Strip will close to traffic for America's Party: Las Vegas New Year 2012 Saturday evening, but you can still take the Las Vegas Monorail to your party destination. Las Vegas Boulevard will close to vehicles, taxis and buses, but the Monorail will get you to where you need to go in under 15 minutes with non-stop service until 3 a.m. "Locals visit the Strip on New Year's Eve to experience the best party in the county, not to waste time in traffic trying to reach a restaurant, show or nightclub," the Las Vegas Monorail Company's Ingrid Reisman said. "For $1 per ride, locals can travel to their party destinations without having to worry about road closures and crowded streets." To receive the local fare, Nevada residents need to present a valid Nevada ID at the Las Vegas Monorail customer service booths located at the MGM Grand and Sahara Monorail stations. The customer service booths will be open on New Year's Eve from 11 a.m. until 12:30 a.m. Locals may purchase up to four single-ride tickets per valid Nevada ID on New Year's Eve. Trains will arrive every few minutes at each of the seven stations. Copyright 2011 FOX5. All rights reserved.

12/29/2011

Las Vegas Monorail offering locals discount on New Year's Eve By Joyce Lupiani CREATED 3:26 AM Tweet Share Email Print Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- The Las Vegas Monorail will be offering Nevada residents discounted rides on New Year's Eve.Las Vegas Boulevard will be closed to vehicles, taxis and buses beginning in the early evening on Dec. 31 but the monorail will operate until 3 a.m.Trains will arrive every few minutes at each of the seven stations.To receive the local fare, Nevada residents must present valid Nevada picture ID at the Las Vegas Monorail customer service booths located at the MGM Grand (Star Lane entrance) and Sahara Monorail stations.The customer services booths will be open on New Year's Eve from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Locals can purchase up to four single-ride tickets (two round trips) for $1 each per valid Nevada ID.The seven stations are located at MGM Grand, Bally's/Paris Las Vegas, Flaming/Caesars Palace, Harrah's/Imperial Palace, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas Hilton and Sahara Avenue.For more information, visit the monorail's website. Next Article in Local News: RTC offering free rides New Year's Eve, service detours announced 0 COMMENTS ADD A COMMENT

12/29/2011

Southern Nevada boasts an abundance of well-designed, beautifully maintained resort courses geared toward a typical recreational golfer -- who, contrary to anecdotal evidence gathered at a 19th hole -- shoots in a neighborhood of 100 during a round. TPC Las Vegas is not exactly one of those courses.This observation isn't intended as a criticism. After all, a course designer took considerable measures to accommodate players of varying skill levels, including a use of a "blended" set of tees for players who don't find a white resort tees quite long enough but are a little overmatched from a blues.Conditions at TPC Las Vegas are predictably immaculate, and a facility exudes a level of refined professionalism that is unsurpassed in a valley. The cautionary note is only warranted because too many players base their performance expectations on a listed yardage; on this course, distance is a least of one's concerns.Case in point is a opening hole, a short par 4 that plays only 359 yards from a tips. For longer hitters, a fort jutting in from a left is in play, but laying back to a comfortable wedge distance is advisable anyway. Any shots that land on a front or left sides of a putting surface will almost certainly roll off a edge, so precision with a short approach is mandatory. Most players are content to escape with a two-putt par, only to discover that this is TPC Las Vegas' second easiest hole.This gentle opener is followed by arguably a single most intimidating shot on a course. This 196-yard par 3 features an island green amid a sea of stone, demanding a fully committed swing. There is a small bailout zone to a right, while a greenside fort beckons like a life raft. With some of a most consistent, firm sand players will ever blast from, it's easy to understand how tour pros have such great control from a beach.At 604 yards, a par-5 sixth hole is a longest offering on a front side. A legitimate three-shot hole for most players, a key to success is avoiding a numerous bunkers and thick, juicy rough.! Taking less club from a tee is prudent for those whose drivers tend to stray in either direction, because a only safe spot is in a middle of a fairway. The second shot must lift or skirt a trap that juts in from a right, with a ideal finishing position being along a fairway's left side to minimize a influence of a front greenside bunker. Players should beware of a forward pin placement, because any approach near a green's front edge will likely trickle back down into a throat.The outward road ends as it began, with a short par 4 that is far more difficult than it appears. The desert fronting a tee boxes requires more lift than one would think, and only supernatural drivers should try to lift a wide fort that barricades a fairway's entire left side. Those who take a more conservative route to a right are "rewarded" with a semiblind approach to a shallow, well-fortified green.The back nine opens with two long par 4s that demand respect. Following a 419-yard offering to begin a trek comes a 444-yard beast. Reaching this green requires two solid shots, with a drive skirting a left fairway fort representing a ideal line. The putting surface is defended by a solitary fort along a right, making a long, run-up approach a more feasible proposition.Although players are buoyed by a prospect of a 365-yard par 4 at No. 14 -- a only par 4 on a back nine that is not well over 400 yards -- a enthusiasm quickly fades when they reach a tee box and can't find a hole. Unless one has a good fortune to play with one of TPC Las Vegas' affable members, this hole in itself justifies a purchase of a yardage book.The target from a tee should be a distant steeple; on that line, a desert bordering a fairway's right edge is not a factor, and a intimidating approach is merely nerve-rattling. While clubbing down might seem prudent given a blind tee shot, adding distance to a second shot that must lift a green-fronting ravine is an unwise strategy.TPC Las Vegas ends with, surprise, a very tough par 4 measuring 448 yards from a back and an impr! essive 4 21 yards even from a combination tees. A pair of bunkers brackets a fairway, but a left one is out of reach for most players. Even from a short grass, however, a second shot is daunting, with water coming into play at about 100 yards out and continuing to a slender green's left edge. A bevy of bunkers borders a putting surface, providing little margin for error. To avoid a big number, players with more accomplished short games should at least consider intentionally missing short to take a water and bunkers out of play, then scrambling for a up-and-down save.TPC Las Vegas is one of a few courses in Southern Nevada where players can score five strokes over their average and still leave feeling good about a round. While this is anything but a walk in a park, it does provide both an excellent challenge and an accurate barometer for a state of one's game.TPC Las Vegas is located at 9851 Canyon Run Drive in a heart of Summerlin. For information or to reserve a tee time, call 256-2000 or visit www.tpc.com/lasvegas.

Just because Nevada has a very limited, poorly advertised choice program among uniform schools that few students participate in, does not mean we should not have an expanded choice program – especially one in which schools must compete for students.




5) The conclusion

Finally, the Las Vegas Sun paraphrases Dr. David Damore, writing, “But the burden is on Sandoval to prove that school vouchers would really have a significant effect, Damore said. In other states the vouchers have proven to be of little use to parents because the monetary value isn’t enough to cover the full cost of parochial or private school tuition.”

Why this is wrong: The burden is not on Sandoval to prove vouchers work; it has already been proven. Nine out of 10 empirical random assignment studies show that vouchers work (nine out of 11 if you include the latest study on the D.C. voucher program, although there is the caveat that the voucher resulted in a graduation rate that was 21 points higher than the control group). Additionally, 18 out of 19 empirical studies find that public schools improve when faced with voucher competition.

Damore’s conclusion that vouchers are of little use because the monetary value isn’t high enough is only a partial truth. The ACLU made a similar claim this year in testimony to the Nevada Legislature, but the reasoning is bogus. It's like arguing that you shouldn't have food stamps because the food stamps don't cover the cost of all the food you might eat.

Here is the reality. Pretty much every voucher and tax-credit program in America today offers just a sliver of the funds available to traditional public schools. This is by design. When voucher opponents fail to stop the program in its tracks, they work to limit the funds available in the hopes that they can make the program less attractive. The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program offered scholarships worth up to $7,500 while the district spent $28,000 per pupil. Incidentally, the average scholarship awarded in D.C. was just $6,600.

Finally, the majority of voucher programs in the U.S. are so overwhelmingly popular – despite the limited funds – that they require lotteries in order to choose which lucky kids will get the money to go to a private school. If parents didn’t find vouchers to be of much use, we wouldn’t need lotteries to sort out who could attend a private school with a voucher and who was stuck in the traditional public school. Additionally, maybe Dr. Damore can explain how vouchers aren't of much use to these parents and students protesting the cancelation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program:

*Other issues like privatization will be addressed at a later date. It is highly questionable whether CCSD has something resembling privatization, especially considering the fact that CCSD employs a legion of carpenters, plumbers, electricians, architects, mechanics, custodians and lawn-care laborers (you wouldn’t exactly call that privatization, would you?) Furthermore, I will note that separate budgets from the general fund do not mean those other funds can not make more efficient use of available resources. Additionally, the funds themselves are merely budgetary gimmicks, as the money can be moved around.

More on Reid's and Sandoval's education plans here.

Let's begin.

Spending more money does not produce better student achievement
1) Nevada's education spending ranks anywhere from 26th to 47th (using figures from the U.S. government) depending on which expenditures you include and how you calculate the numbers. But does this matter?

No. Between 1959 and 2007, Nevada increased public education spending by 180 percent per pupil – and yes, that is after adjusting for inflation (but doesn’t include capital costs and debt repayment). Even with this 180 percent more money per pupil, no one in his or her right mind would argue that the quality of education today is better than 50 years ago.

In fact, almost no respected researcher argues that spending more money improves student achievement.

The National Working Group on Funding Student Learning, an assembly of several education researchers including professors from Washington, Wisconsin, Vanderbilt, Penn State, Stanford and U.C. Berkeley (hardly a bastion of conservative thought) reached a consensus that "the connection between resources and learning has been growing weaker, not stronger,” and that “…the system itself is the problem … State education finance systems were not designed with student learning in mind …”

And much more evidence suggests that there is no correlation between spending more money and improving student achievement.

Don't forget, it is widely recognized that teachers in Nevada are paid quite well relative to other states (ranking anywere from 17th to 22nd highest). Not that paying teachers more helps. According to Dale Ballou and Michael Podgursky, authors of "Teacher Quality and Teacher Pay," increasing the pay of teachers does not attract higher-quality teachers to the profession - school districts simply spent more money on the same pool of teachers.


Someone once defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. When it comes to education policy, doing the same thing over and over again is cruel and selfish because of the effects it has on entire generations of children.
2) Reid and Sandoval are right: Public education in Nevada is broken. We have dismal math and reading scores, rank fourth-worst in drop-out rate and are last in the nation in graduation rates. Fewer than half of low-income, black and Hispanic children can read at grade level, according to the NAEP fourth-grade reading exam. According to Education Week, fewer than one-third of African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans will graduate on time with a standard high school diploma in the Silver State.

Why are our results so bad? The major reason is that Nevada's public education system is an unaccountable, bureaucratic monopoly that focuses on jobs for adults, not education for students. I’m not alone in this judgment. The School Finance Redesign Project at the University of Washington, Bothel, concluded that public education is “focused on maintaining programs and paying adults, not on searching for the most effective way to educate our children.”

It's not fiction, bad teachers do exist.
3) Both candidates want to reform teacher evaluations, teacher seniority and teacher tenure. Doing so will help ensure we get bad teachers out of classrooms.

The National Council on Teacher Quality notes that Nevada is a state where earning tenure is “virtually automatic.” Few higher-ed teachers, by contrast, actually receive tenure, and even then it takes five or more years to earn the privilege. Tenure makes it hard to get rid of really bad teachers.

According to the Center for American Progress, a left-of-center think tank (read: NOT CONSERVATIVE), and the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, Nevada’s school districts terminated or failed to renew the contracts of just 0.2 percent of “untenured teachers” and 0.3 percent of “tenured teachers” in 2007-08. Overall, Nevada kept 99.4 percent of its teachers that year. Only Arkansas, Delaware and Pennsylvania fired fewer teachers.

If getting rid of bad teachers and implementing teacher evaluations, eliminating seniority privileges and tenure is such a conservative idea, then why would U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan say, “[w]hen inflexible seniority and rigid tenure rules that we designed put adults ahead of children — then we are not only putting kids at risk, we are putting the entire education system at risk.” Yup, Arne Duncan: NOT A CONSERVATIVE.

Furthermore, Whitney Tilson of Democrats for Education Reform (read: NOT A CONSERVATIVE) identifies “three pillars of mediocrity” that must be eliminated: a) Lifetime tenure, b) lockstep pay and c) seniority (instead of merit).

Advocating education policies that actually work doesn't mean those ideas are conservative.

4) School choice isn’t a conservative issue, either. It's an education issue. Partisans have made it into an ideological issue solely because one major source of campaign funding – the teacher unions – hates school choice. More choice for parents and students means less opportunity for unions to control and manipulate education policy and, thus, fewer opportunities to fatten their own pockets.

Howard Fuller, a former Black Panther and current professor at Marquette University (read: NOT A CONSERVATIVE) has stated: "There is a fundamental issue confronting African Americans, and therefore all Americans. Parents without the power to make educational choices lack an indispensable tool for helping their children secure an effective education."

Anthony Colón, a former vice president of La Raza (read: NOT A CONSERVATIVE) has stated: "Vouchers are not a Republican idea. If your community is underperforming with low graduation rates and sits at the bottom of the barrel in math and science, you don't worry about vouchers being a Republican issue. You worry about what works for your community."

Senator James T. Meeks, a Democrat from inner-city Chicago (read: NOT A CONSERVATIVE), not only pushed for a voucher program for low-income children in Chicago, but when the union was angered by his efforts he wrote the union a check and returned its campaign donations.

And don’t forget the crowd that marched in Florida to expand the Step Up for Students program.



Or the diverse crowd that marched on D.C. to protest the Democrats' union-backed and ideologically driven attempt to kill a voucher program that works.



Note, Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman and California Democrat Dianne Feinstein (Read: NOT CONSERVATIVES) have tried to bring back the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

Speaking of what works, how about the evidence that vouchers work? Nine out of 10 empirical studies find that students benefit from the use of vouchers to attend private schools. Eighteen out of 19 studies find that public schools improve when faced with voucher competition. In 2009, a U.S. Department of Education study found that students using the D.C. voucher to attend a private school over a three-year period saw an 18-month gain in reading skills, while a 2010 report found that students using the scholarship to attend a private school saw graduation rates that were 21 percentage points higher than the control group.

It is very, very clear that vouchers improve student achievement, graduation rates and public schools. It is also clear that competition between public schools as well as public school choice improve student achievement.

Researcher Carolyn Hoxby of Stanford University found that charter schools in New York improved student achievement in reading and mathematics, especially among low-income children. Importantly, Hoxby's research shows that the charter schools closed the achievement gap significantly. Additionally, Marcus Winters, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, found that traditional public schools improved when faced with competition from charter schools.

Even the union-run but autonomous Pilot Schools in Boston outperformed the traditional government monopoly school. Choice and school decentralization work. Period.

If Jon Ralston really does believe we need to spend more money on education, then he is advocating what doesn't work. Ralston is completely wrong in his assessment of Reid vs. Sandoval. Painting empirically proven education policies as ideologically driven dogma is not only incorrect, it is a disservice to the students of Nevada who deserve a much better education. Reid vs. Sandoval on education policy isn’t “conservative vs. very conservative” ... it is “what works vs. what works.”

In order to fund the $10 billion "Keep Our Educators Working Act," Obey wants to cut "about $500 million from the $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund, $200 million from the Teacher Incentive Fund that supports creation of pay-for-performance programs and $100 million from the Charter Schools Program."

How come so many Democrats in Congress are concerned about funding jobs for adults and so few are concerned about actually educating students? I mean, with policies that actually work?

The D.C district's graduation rate, according to NCES, is 56 percent.
The graduation rate for students winning and then using the voucher to attend a private school was 91 percent.

This all means that the effects of vouchers in D.C. are substantially understated by the report because nearly half of the control group exercised school choice. Unfortunately, journalists are unlikely to uncover these nuances and will instead report that vouchers don't work, despite the considerable scientific evidence that finds vouchers improve student achievement.

(we just pay more money for the same talent pool), so maybe merit pay has the long-term potential to attract higher-quality teachers. At this point, we still don't know.

Dr. Matthew Ladner (vice president of research at the Goldwater Institute and a policy fellow at the Nevada Policy Research Institute) still supports the idea of merit pay (for reasons including those given by Eric Hanushek) and wonders why merit pay worked in Little Rock, Ark., but not in Tennessee. He thinks more research on the right way to do merit pay is still needed.

Dr. Jay P. Greene (University of Arkansas) claims to have always been skeptical of merit pay (and now is even more skeptical). He reasons that creating market forces (via merit pay) won't work when the teachers are still operating within an uncompetitive, government-controlled monopoly. According to Dr. Greene, the whole system needs to change.

2004 was the first full school year in which the 2003 tax increases (largest in state history) were available to fund education (also the first year available in detail from the Clark County School Districts detailed budgets). Since 2004, CCSD's general operating fund (what they consider the day to day operating budget for the school district) increased by 9.8 percent.

Salary and Benefits for CCSD employees grew by 12.1 percent - more than the operating budget and total budget.

This isn't surprising. After all, in 1955 the Clark County School District employed 1 person for every 20 students; today they employ one person for every 8.6 students. We have more employees in education earning far larger salaries and benefits, but is this investment producing the results we need?

Maybe it is time we start thinking about the outcomes for children rather than how many jobs K-12 education can provide for adults?

FYI, if you think 2004 is an arbitrary figure to select, that date is higher than 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 with 2000 being the low point in the last decade. And if you are worried about the recent budget cuts, these increases are AFTER the budget cuts. In fact, per-pupil spending devoted to salary and benefits hasn't gone down...AT ALL since the recession started.

performance 18th in the nation and gives the Silver State a “C” for education reform.

The ranking was based on reading and math scores for fourth- and eighth-grade low-income students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. By focusing on low-income student achievement the researchers create a better apples-to-apples comparison between states.
The good news is that Nevada beats all of its regional neighbors in educating low-income students. Nevada's ability to provide above-average education to low-income students is worthy of praise, but Nevada's middle- and high-income students don't perform much better, which drags Nevada’s overall achievement levels down.

Policies like identifying effective teachers, rewarding good teachers, alternative teacher certification and expanded school choice can all help improve the quality of education for all children in the Silver State.

," the NEA spent $56.3 million in the 2007-08 election cycle, more than all of the above combined!

Between the NEA and AFT (the other major teacher union), the unions spent $71.7 million on political campaigns during the 2007-08 election cycle. The NEA almost always fronts money for politicians and voter initiatives to raise taxes or to fight tax cuts and tax-limitation measures. Naturally, the unions also fight against parental choice and charter schools, both of which limit their influence by decentralizing control over education.

During the 2007-08 election cycle, the teachers unions spent $812,000 in Nevada. Teacher union spending in Nevada amounts to $34.68 per teacher, ranking Nevada 11th highest in the nation.

The NEA also funds many left-wing organizations like America Votes, the Economic Policy Institute, People for the American Way, the Center for American Progress, and Media Matters. The NEA also funds dubious academic research centers like Arizona State's Education Policy Research Unit, which is highly critical of charter schools and conservative/libertarian organizations, and the left-wing Great Lakes Center for Education Research, which pretends it's not an NEA front group even though the bulk of its funds come directly from the NEA.

fund political campaigns for things that have nothing to do with education?

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