[Golfinnova]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

70.91 percent

The Clark County School District's 2014 graduation rate is 70.91 percent, as announced Jan. 22, 2015 by Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky and members of the Board of School Trustees.Jan 22, 2015. I don't know about you, but I consider 30% drop-out rate not just "extremely high." It's unsustainable. It creates a feedback loop that makes it harder and harder for us to dig ourselves out of this educational hole.

And even if people have the means to move to where the half-way decent schools are; or are lucky enough to place their kids in a magnet program; it still doesn't do a damned thing about the fact that we're going to live with all the people who aren't being served by the school system. Not all of them are lazy or stupid -- it is numerically more likely that most of them are at least average, but marginalized.

We can spend money on them while they're young; or we can pack them off to prisons later.

It's the same thing with our homeless problem -- we're going to spend one way or another. The price is comparable. One way just has better outcomes all around. Healthcare? That's improved of late but there are still far too many using the ER as their primary care facility. Pay now or pay later.

That's what I mean by "we can't fix our problems until we first acknowledge that they exist." Mention it, and get a rousing chorus of, "So why did you move here in the first place?"

Lack of imagination is another big problem facing this city.

Again Scoop, while your point has some validity, you still think it is only a CCSD and it clearly is not. I did some research on a similar city in terms of population which is Kansas City and they have the same issues as here:

Kansas City schools chief:

[Golfinnova]

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/uc...decpdf/table-6

Unemployment Rates for Large Metropolitan Areas

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

"It's bad all over the Southwest."

"It's like this in most big cities."

"We'll never be able to fix this so long as we have immigrants."

"It's always been this way."

I don't live in Kansas City. I wish them well. I hope they figure it out.

"It's bad all over," doesn't excuse us from doing NOTHING about the problems at home.

[Golfinnova]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

I don't live in Kansas City. I wish them well. I hope they figure it out.

"It's bad all over," doesn't excuse us from doing NOTHING about the problems at home.

But yet, you still perpetuate the illusion that CCSD is the worst in the nation. Again, you could write news for Fox or CNBC with the amount of spin you and the other naysayers put on the city, and do you HONESTLY think you are the only one who helps out at the schools here?

You really need to view the forest before the trees and stop this blind hatred

[ScoopLV]

Does it matter if we're 47th, 49th, 50th or 51st? Really? Does it matter?

Does a place or two on the national hierarchy make any difference at all when it comes to attracting new industry? Does it improve our quality of life? Our crime statistics? Or how about the basic waste of human potential?

We're SOLIDLY in the bottom quintile. Care to debate that?

[Golfinnova]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

Does it matter if we're 47th, 49th, 50th or 51st? Really? Does it matter?

Does a place or two on the national hierarchy make any difference at all when it comes to attracting new industry? Does it improve our quality of life? Our crime statistics? Or how about the basic waste of human potential?

We're SOLIDLY in the bottom quintile. Care to debate that?

It only matters what one gets out of it, the trouble is that you let your hatred blind anything positive. That's all that matters!

Again, you sound like an angry old man telling kids to get off his lawn. That is the only debate, so maybe you should take some friendly advice and take a break from the board for a while. Let the rest of us decide for ourselves what is best for our children!

[Cyborgt800]

How can anyone say that other than gambling there's nothing to do in LV? There's everything to do that any other city has plus 100 other things.

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by Golfinnova

It only matters what one gets out of it, the trouble is that you let your hatred blind anything positive. That's all that matters!

Again, you sound like an angry old man telling kids to get off his lawn. That is the only debate, so maybe you should take some friendly advice and take a break from the board for a while. Let the rest of us decide for ourselves what is best for our children!

Since the local consensus about how to fix our failing schools is ideas like, "So why did you move here in the first place" and "It's bad all over the southwest" and "Eeek! Immigrants;" I submit that Las Vegas as a city has proven that it cannot be trusted to dig itself out of this hole.

If people were deciding for their children and their children only, that would be one thing. But Las Vegas has written off entire swaths of its population and leaves them to fend for themselves in the drop-out factories of the central valley. So "let us decide" simply isn't a valid rebuttal.

People may be short-sighted enough to only care what happens to their own children. But Las Vegas is forced to live with the product of the school system as a whole. Those drop-outs aren't going anywhere. Those drop-outs are in fact our unwed teen mother problem, healthcare problem, narcotics problem, and crime problem in its early stages.

Pay now or pay later. I'd rather see us reduce class sizes FOR ONCE. We've never tried doing the right thing. Let's try that first, before we dismiss the problem as unsolvable.


And this is just one facet of the "Living in Las Vegas experience." People who move here with a degree or an advanced degree will be in the slim minority in Las Vegas. Not only is the average resident uneducated, this city displays a outright contempt for education that I have never before experienced. (In other areas, people may not have attended college themselves, but they wanted a college education for their kids. Here, college is derided as an indoctrination center, and if students don't study a marketable major, they are wasting their time.)

[ScoopLV]

Let's try this another way.

Here's the full 2015 Mercer Quality of Life city list:

https://www.imercer.com/uploads/GM/q...015/index.html


Unfortunately, Las Vegas isn't ranked. That would make things easy if it was. But I have traveled to almost half of that list -- and not just a few days here and there, either. Furthermore, although I admit to having visited more cities at the top of the list than the bottom, I have been to a surprisingly large number of the world's most unlivable cities.

The big problem with this list as I see it is that it doesn't tell the reader why the bad cities are bad. For instance, Moscow is near Kampala on this list. I wouldn't even think twice if I were forced to choose between Moscow and Kampala. Most of Moscow isn't dying of AIDS and they don't have much of a terrorism and kidnapping problem. Just basic run-of-the-mill corruption and horrible weather. Moscow in my opinion is considerably more liveable than Kampala -- even though they're a couple numbers away from each other on this list.

Detroit is the lowest-ranked US city on that list. Hard to argue with that. I'm very glad I don't live in Detroit. But Dubai is ranked even lower, and frankly, I'd take Dubai over Detroit. I have good friends who live there, and are raising a family there. And they picked Dubai because of the quality of life and income potential. At least Dubai

I think it's fair to place Las Vegas somewhere in between #65 Miami and #74 Dubai. That's a fair assessment of where Las Vegas fits in the world-wide scheme. Frankly, I think I'm being generous because the other cities have ocean access where Las Vegas does not.

If anyone cares to rank Las Vegas higher on the above list and has thoughtful reasons why, I'm interesting in hearing about it. But surely nobody is going to rank the quality of life higher than Vienna or Auckland. That's just ridiculous.

[Golfinnova]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

Since the local consensus about how to fix our failing schools is ideas like, "So why did you move here in the first place" and "It's bad all over the southwest" and "Eeek! Immigrants;" I submit that Las Vegas as a city has proven that it cannot be trusted to dig itself out of this hole.

If people were deciding for their children and their children only, that would be one thing. But Las Vegas has written off entire swaths of its population and leaves them to fend for themselves in the drop-out factories of the central valley. So "let us decide" simply isn't a valid rebuttal.

People may be short-sighted enough to only care what happens to their own children. But Las Vegas is forced to live with the product of the school system as a whole. Those drop-outs aren't going anywhere. Those drop-outs are in fact our unwed teen mother problem, healthcare problem, narcotics problem, and crime problem in its early stages.

Pay now or pay later. I'd rather see us reduce class sizes FOR ONCE. We've never tried doing the right thing. Let's try that first, before we dismiss the problem as unsolvable.


And this is just one facet of the "Living in Las Vegas experience." People who move here with a degree or an advanced degree will be in the slim minority in Las Vegas. Not only is the average resident uneducated, this city displays a outright contempt for education that I have never before experienced. (In other areas, people may not have attended college themselves, but they wanted a college education for their kids. Here, college is derided as an indoctrination center, and if students don't study a marketable major, they are wasting their time.)

Scoop, the trouble is you are arguing with a STOP sign. You keep basing arguments on emotions rather than facts even when shown your blanket doom and gloom are not always the case or you simply deflect the point that I have shown repeatedly which is every city has issues especially when it comes to schools.

I simply don't understand your endgame, school systems are always the last in priority when it comes to government funding. It doesn't matter if it's a no state tax income state like we have or a huge tax state like Maryland which also has a higher foreclosure rate than Nevada. Does it suck, absolutely but until our "leaders" decide put schools ahead of wars or other stupid lobbyists, kids will still be stepped over.