Newly elected Governor Brian Sandoval has jumped onto the Republican bandwagon to fight against Unions, teachers, firefighters, police officers, nurses and maintenance workers in the United States.
The national Republican plan which is being implemented in every State with a Republican Governor is to lower wages for everyone, union and non-union, get rid of pension plans, health care plans and all other benefits that all Americans currently receive thanks to Union bargaining over the last 100 years.
Then privatize everything so various companies and corporations can profit off of your cheap labor and your tax dollars. You will no longer have to worry about companies and corporations hiring illegal immigrants because Republicans and the corporations they work for are creating their very own 3rd world workforce made up of what use to be America’s middle-class.
The Republicans are attacking school teachers and even their schools in both K-12 and higher education systems all across America. Republicans want to eliminate the Department of Education and the public school system and have kids go to private schools, or at least the ones that can afford it, vouchers rarely cover the entire tuition to these private schools. And here in Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval is leading that charge.
Sandoval wants to cut K-12 funding by 9 percent and higher education by nearly 20 percent. And of course he is pushing for more education dollars going towards voucher programs to private schools. To be fair, some private schools are better than some public schools. But the opposite is also true, many public schools out shine their private school counter parts. In Wisconsin for example, reading and math scores are much higher in their public school system compared to private schools. But they invest more time and money in their children then we do here in Nevada.
Sandoval like other States being run by Republican Governors are going after the teachers themselves, by eliminating collective bargaining rights. Nevada which ranks near the bottom in education scores compared to the other 49 States, has this ranking due to the fact that Nevada is at the bottom in spending per pupil compared to the other 49 States. And Sandoval who says he concerned about Nevada’s education shows his concerns by slashing education budgets and attacking the teachers and unions.
Governor Sandoval says he wants to diversify Nevada business to create jobs, and he is correct we must diversify. But Sandoval knows that in order to diversify Nevada needs to produce better educated citizens so new businesses will have qualified employee’s to hire and a school system for those who relocate with them. In fact, Sandoval was told by a bevy of Corporations that it is Nevada’s poor education system that keeps them from relocating to Nevada. Sandoval says its our taxes that keep corporations from relocating. Just so happens that Nevada is one of the most tax friendly States there is.
Both a majority of citizens in Nevada and the businesses in Nevada show in poll after poll that they would be willing to pay higher taxes to better the education system we have. But Governor Brian Sandoval who pledged “no new taxes” is standing by his pledge even if it means watching Nevada fail.
Last week Sandoval appeared on Face to Face with Jon Ralston you should watch it. Sandoval only seems to care about his pledge of “no new taxes” and of course the Republican motto of lowering taxes for businesses. He really seems detached from the realities that Nevadans are faced with on education and creating diversity for Nevada’s economy. Maybe Sandoval’s intention is to create very low paying jobs in the future, that is more inline with his budget proposals as well as the Republican party policies that we are seeing implemented by Republican Governors nationwide.