Riotous Muslims getting too many headlines

To the editor:

The bold headline, "Anger over Quran burning spreads," dominated most of the page in Sunday's Review-Journal. This "anger" seems to be getting more press than the incident in Florida itself.

But although it seems newsworthy -- at least to some -- many of us didn't even know the incident had occurred.

Everyone from the White House to special-interest groups is now scrambling to appease the rioters and mend "strained ties" in the Middle East. But nowhere in this article was there any mention of the widespread desecration of Christian literature and the actual murder of Christians or those turning to Christianity by these same riotous folks getting today's headlines.

These unruly crowds, these self-proclaimed peaceful people, are breaking the law and need to be treated as lawbreakers, not appeased. The only consolation to the Review-Journal article was that it was on page 16A.

Jim Andreas

Las Vegas

Political showmanship

To the editor:

It appears state Sen. Michael Roberson is attempting to develop his political chops by recycling old information from a 2009 report from the Nevada Policy Research Institute.

In his letter of April 3 calling for reforms in higher education, he gives lip service to the student-protesters who traveled to Carson City to lobby for support of education funding -- appreciating their activism -- while lambasting the wastefulness of the higher education system. He complains about the tax-raising Nevada Legislature and wants to conduct a "thoughtful discussion" among the players; and seems troubled that Nevadans contribute too little to their own education.

I'm guessing he thinks the Millennium Scholarship is demonstrating poor stewardship of Nevada revenues.

He does not, however, offer one concrete suggestion to improve things. His letter is blatant political showmanship.

Maybe Mr. Roberson needs to look more deeply into the reasons people attend colleges and universities. And there are many reasons why people do not complete their education. Not everyone needs, desires or can afford a four-year college degree. But any amount of higher education is a benefit to all Nevadans.

It may interest Mr. Roberson to know that according to U.S. News and World Report, both Stanford and the Air Force Academy have graduation rates under 80 percent.

Robert Bencivenga

Henderson

Won't help

To the editor:

The proposal to close down or merge our colleges as part of the budget crisis is not going to produce long-term revenue for Nevada. This will simply cause a reduction in access to higher education, which will hurt the state because we are already at the bottom of almost every national statistic on education. It won't help us attract new industry or high tech companies to the state, either.

The problem that needs fixing in Nevada higher education is that colleges are enrolling too many students who are not college ready. A whopping 95 percent of students that enroll at the College of Southern Nevada and Truckee Meadows Community College from high school need to take remedial math.

In other words, in college, students need to retake math they should have learned in 8th grade or before. This is a big red flag that legislators did not see: K-12 is broken and needs fixing. K-12 is supposed to produce college-ready graduates, but by and large, it is not doing so. The very best thing the Legislature could do for Nevada is to see that this happens.

Unfortunately, our colleges keep taking unprepared students. As a result, college graduation rates in the state have suffered to the extent that they are the worst in the nation. Further, college services have expanded in response to the unprepared students needing increasing levels of support.

It is time for the Legislature to wake up and tend to these problems. Fix the K-12 school system so it produces more college-ready graduates, and provide incentives to colleges to enroll only college-ready students.

Lars Jensen

Reno