OPINION: Governor’s Team Responds to Critical Op/Ed About His Worthless Education Plan

Governor Joe Lombardo read my May 4 op/ed.

He didn’t like it because it trashed his new Education Plan.

https://thenevadaglobe.com/articles/opinion-governor-lombardos-new-education-plan-not-worth-a-bucket-of-warm-spit/

OPINION: Governor Lombardo’s New Education Plan: “Not Worth a Bucket of Warm Spit.” Paul D. White is a Reno resident and career educator whose program “Gangsters-to-Gardeners” won state and national awards. A two-time Educator-of-the-Year, he is the co-author of White’s Rules – Saving Our Youth, One Kid at a Time (Random House) and The Stronghold School Student Handbook. thenevadaglobe.com

The op/ed explained in detail that the Governor’s Plan shows no knowledge of the real issues killing our schools, and will accomplish nothing. The essay concluded by stating the 2 reasons why this is so.

1) The Governor’s Plan lacks the moral courage and understanding to confront the foundational issues that are causing our schools to fail.

2) The Governor himself doesn’t understand anything about our schools; and his advisors’ knowledge on this subject is virtually nil.

Unexpectedly, the Governor’s Team Called Me and We Discussed the Following.

1) His team asked if I wanted to be “on the Governor’s side” in the fight to fix our schools. I said that of course I did … IF the Governor was willing to confront the main issues outlined in my op/ed, which are the ONLY way our failed education system can ever be fixed.

His team said that Lombardo was NOT willing to do that.

2) I asked the Governor’s  team if he was willing to use the Emergency Powers Act to fix our schools. Without doing this, the needed, large-scale changes will never happen.

His team said that Lombardo was NOT willing to do that, either.

3) Lombardo’s team said that even if the Governor was not willing to do anything meaningful to fix our schools, would I be willing to stop writing critical op/ed’s,(like this one) because, “At least Lombardo’s a lot better than Sisolak.”

I told Lombardo’s team that I thought Sisolak had been an unarguable disaster in every possible way.However, on the schools issue, I had seen NO substantive difference between Sisolak and Lombardo, e.g.:

• They both know-and-care very little about the real education issues that are ruining our children.

• They both have no interest in learning more about these issues.

• They both shared the same top priority: getting re-elected.

How much more evidence does the Governor need to see before he realizes the need to invoke the Emergency Powers Act to fix our schools?

• Is it not enough that half our students don’t even attend school on any given day, and the same amount use drugs and alcohol daily on campus?

• Is 2 DECADES of daily sex-trafficking in most our secondary schools not enough to justify the Governor making immediate, sweeping changes?

¨ How many more good teachers have to quit because of being repeatedly abused and assaulted by students and unsupported by weak, cowardly principals?

• How many more years are we going to continue graduating a majority of 12th graders who are functionally illiterate and unprepared to support themselves?

• How does the Governor continue to ignore the knives, guns, suicides, murders, Code Red terror threats, growing gang presence, overt racist incidents by Black and Latino students, strong-arm robbery, and day-long chaotic campus behavior that is the standard in both Washoe and Clark counties and others – almost ALL of which takes place with little or no consequences for the perpetrators?

Governor:

Your new Education Plan focuses on the wrong targets and is just tough talk with no actions to back it up. Meanwhile, our state education system continues its Death Spiral.

My conversation with your “team” convinced me that if you have any hope of fixing our schools, the first thing that needs changing is them. After – and IF you do that, would be a good time to come up with a real Plan and put it in action.

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