The latest on Jim Gibbons’ affair?  Private meetings on education.  O.K., different affair.

Education? Yes, I support education.

He recently formed the Blue Ribbon Education Reform Task Force, headed by Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Dan Klaich and Director of Wynn Resorts Elaine Wynn, but only to handle the ‘Race to the Top’ grants.

The big controversy surrounding this Task Force is that they met at the Wynn Hotel and Casino in a private meeting.  Why?  This is a public board put forth by the Governor to handle these grants and help his vision on seeing education in Nevada get to its funding of past years.  Daniel Berns (Gibbons’s Communications Director) and Stacy Woodbury (Deputy Chief of Staff) said that with the media being involved in it would make things more complicated.  Additionally, it was the committee’s decision to have a private first meeting.

I can not see that as an honest, legitimate reason.  What this board decides will affect me and other students all over the state.  Also, if the board decides to implement ideas that Governor Gibbons or any of the other candidates for governor put forth in 2011, I would like for them to hear my voice on many of the issues.  Not only that, there are teachers, administration and staff who would put their voices in too.

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Many Nevadans are having a hard time comprehending Governor Jim Gibbons idea of self-management.  This is not a new idea, just an idea that most Nevadans have not seen in a while.  Governor Gibbons is saying that certain bureaucracies should make decisions for themselves on conclusions like state employee work weeks and budgets.

Governor Gibbons wants the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) Board to decide how to raise money and how the universities and colleges should operate.  This is positive and negative in many different ways.

First off, I am a student and a citizen of this state.  I was there for Governor Gibbon’s speech at CSN for the Board of Regents meeting for NSHE.  He touted his speech as his ideal of “change.”  Between his inauguration and that speech, he vowed to uphold education but did nothing but cut it.  What he successfully managed to do is cripple education for this generation of Nevadans and one of the most active voting and outspoken groups in this country’s history.

I can not wrap my head around this idea; a politician cannot just change his mind about policy on such an important issue as education during a mid-term election.  It is wrong and it makes all his constituents – who in this case are students – feel like their voices have no meaning.  We voted this man over former State Senator and now Congresswoman Dina Titus on good ole Jim’s pledge of Education First.

Now, he is saying he wants to fund education to its historic levels.  Dear Governor, where have you been since early 2007?  When we needed you the most you believed that education, the biggest slice of the pie in the Nevada state budget, should be cut to save the state.  What you admitted is that education will save this state and it needs more funding?  Are you kidding me?

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Governor Jim Gibbons outlined the details of his six step plan to make “sweeping changes to modernize higher education” in a press conference Thursday morning. “As a graduate of Nevada public schools and universities, I am committed to ensuring quality education in our K-12 and higher education systems,” Gibbons told reporters.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

The good news is that the plan is consistent with (taken from) proposals by regents and chancellors of today and the past. For some time, the Nevada System of Higher Education has been seeking more control over its own fate.

The plan would allow future increases in registration fees and out of state tuition to be retained by the campuses generating that revenue. In an attempt to promote efficiency, the proposed changes also include the System retaining 25% of unspent general funds each year. Right now all unspent funds return to the state’s general fund.

In addition, these changes will give the regents more control and autonomy over how state funds are spent in the System.

There was mixed reaction in the crowd. Chancellor Klaich, and some of the regents I spoke with afterward, assured me that these are many of the plans they had been seeking for some time, and that they were pleased with the Governor’s commitment.

The part that has some worried is Gibbon’s emphasis on students bearing more of the burden of the cost of higher ed. He said that higher education in this state is “a bargain,” and further that “it is fair to ask our students to bear a greater share of the cost of education through increased tuition and fees.”

Aren’t tuition and fee increases is tantamount to a tax increase? The sad part is that the tax increase is going to college students who typically have little income, are going to school because they were laid off, or are simply trying to improve their income situation.

Affordability factors into the success of diversity among race as well as income levels at the higher ed institutions.  It appears the Governor would rather knock us while we are down, rather than tapping into the multiple sources of revenues that create Nevada’s 16th highest GDP per capita in the U.S.

Never mind that Nevada’s taxes are practically non-existent. If we were in California, I could see a discussion about excessive taxes, etc. Nevada is the opposite extreme. This is why Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval refuses to promise that he won’t raise taxes. It just isn’t realistic anymore. It never was.

Mining has been subsidized by our state for too long. Mining did come to the table and agreed to a tax increase during this special session. Thank you guys.  However, you have had it far too easy since your interests were built into our constitution at inception. Currently, our constitution protects mining from anything more than a 5% tax on their proceeds, a figure they determine.

Large international multi-billion dollar corporations don’t pay any taxes here, minus sales tax and other minutia in filing fees. McDonald’s, Wal Mart, Applebees, Dillards, AT&T, General Electric, etc., etc. Come on. They still do business in California and New York. We don’t tax them here, even after they come here and make millions of our hard earned money?

Something ain’t right my friends, something ain’t right.