Has the R-J changed its mind about class size?

To the editor:

Wait, roll the tape back! The editorial page of the Las Vegas Review-Journal is lamenting larger class sizes in the Clark County School District (Sunday, Monday editorials)?

But if we flash back over the past 15 or so years, this same editorial board has consistently taken the position that larger class sizes have no impact on student learning. Of course, you backed your claim with citations from unidentified studies, or those produced by anti-education paper mills such as the Cato Institute and the Nevada Policy Research Institute, paragons of truth and virtue.

So, hey, you got what you wanted: larger class sizes to run your controlled experiment. And it looks like bigger ones next year. So quit your whining.

In closing, good-faith bargaining is a matter of opinion on both sides.

Paul Ruth

Henderson

Who will teach?

To the editor:

As both a teacher and a parent, I am fed up with the Review-Journal's one-sided insistence that teachers are the cause of the school district's budget shortfalls. In Monday's editorial, "Back to school," the Review-Journal points the blame on all that is wrong in the Clark County School District at the teachers and our union's unwillingness to budge on our contract. It is now all our fault that classrooms are overcrowded.

How about the fact that there are still numerous teachers in nonteaching positions? Almost daily, the school district posts job openings for licensed teachers who will never set foot in a classroom to directly teach students. Why aren't these jobs eliminated before classroom positions are? And why has Superintendent Dwight Jones continued to add more layers of management at the top instead of funneling that precious money into the classroom? Where is the reporting on that? Why is it always the little guy to blame? Because it is easier to vilify the little guy without a voice.

Well, we do have a voice. More than 1,000 teachers left the Clark County School District last year, many because they simply got fed up with the way we are treated by the community and our employer. Wake up, everyone. If you keep kicking the dog, he might just run away.

And then who is going to teach our children?

Wendy Gelbart

Las Vegas

Change the system

To the editor:

Sunday's editorial, "Round and round," highlights the major local issue in the Las Vegas Valley: the quality of our children's education. The voters must pressure the state Legislature to pass reforms that will allow the Clark County School District the ability to deliver the highest standards of education possible without threats and interference from the self-serving teachers union, whose only concern is their members' paychecks.

Allowing expired contract terms to roll over during negotiations only encourages the union to stall and play games with our children's future. The voters should insist on open contract negotiation meetings so they can see who is the real villain.

Our elected officials should be running things, not the public-sector unions or outside arbitrators. To feed their unabated pay increases, the unions are pushing initiatives to raise taxes right in the middle of the worst recession in recent history. These public-sector unions are out of touch with reality. Even President Obama is requesting that federal workers continue to accept pay freezes.

Conrad Ryan

Las Vegas

It's about respect

To the editor:

With each new gun violence incident, there is a predictable and perhaps justified call for laws to limit the possession of firearms. It is the liberal mind-set that for any social ill, there is a solution in a new law, more regulation or heightened police powers. I would like to point out that laws only affect law-abiding citizens, and that some of the most horrific acts of recent violence were committed with ordinary household items.

I think the root of the problem is a lack of respect for the victim. It seems to me that being armed helps a person gain respect. As an example, I have an acquaintance who regularly carries a pistol. He has a concealed carry permit and is law-abiding. I hate to admit it, but I respect (fear?) him to a greater degree because of his firepower.

If the public were allowed to carry concealed weapons without restriction, I doubt that 5 percent would do it, but who would know who was armed? I suggest that this uncertainty would lead to greater respect for everyone.

I'd like to see the country seriously rethink the advantages of making it difficult for law-abiding citizens to possess and carry firearms. Let's let the criminals assume that all citizens are armed, and perhaps they'll treat them with more respect.

Ed Dornlas

Las Vegas

Change the name

To the editor:

Sen. Harry Reid did this community a great service when he suggested renaming McCarran International Airport (Saturday Review-Journal). Many people don't know, as Sen. Reid pointed out, that Sen. McCarran was anti-Semetic and anti-black. Sen. McCarran was also anti-immigrant (see the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952).

I agree with Sen. Reid that Sen. McCarran's name shouldn't be on anything. When it comes to naming our international airport, we can do much, much better.

Irene Valdez

Las Vegas