Harry's bringing home table scraps, not bacon

This letter to the editor in the Review Journal has some interesting facts about Harry Reid. I have not checked them out so I do not know how true they are.

It states that

Data from www. visualeconomics.com indicate that Nevada is 50th (out of 50 states) in federal tax allotments per state on a per capita basis. The place with the most tax allotments per capita is Washington, D.C., with $65,109. The state with the lowest federal tax allotments per capita is Nevada with $5,889.

Good thing that Harry Reid is so influential. Just think where Nevada would be without him. Nevada and the United States would probably be in better shape.

Review Jounal letter

This is a letter that I wrote to the Review Journal. It was published on Wednesday.

On Sunday, June 13th, in Glenn Cook’s commentary titled, ‘Ten races will decide everything’, he mentions a third party candidate in only one race. This omission is glaring because the third party candidates will affect several races.

In the District 9 Senate race where I am running as an Independent American Party candidate, only 25,320 votes were cast. There are 37,927 voters in that district who are registered INA, LIB, or other. Since I am the only other candidate in that race, there is a very good chance that the voters registered NP, INA, and other will vote for me instead of one of the other candidates.

If you are going to examine political races, you should do it thoroughly and include 3rd party candidates in your analysis so that the voters have all the facts on which to base a decision.

This year many voters are disgruntled and may vote for the 3rd party candidates. In fact, the Independent American Party is the fastest growing party in Nevada.

Tom Jones

Graduation time: Hold the celebration

This NPRI article about graduation is depressing. It states that

high school graduates earn, on average, at least 38 percent more money per week than do high school drop-outs — and, with even more education, income rises substantially. High school graduates also live healthier, longer lives on average, and are less likely to go to jail or live in poverty.

Of course, you would expect that graduates would do better than non graduates. However, the article continues with the bad news. It states

Unfortunately, graduation time in Nevada is not as cheerful as it should be. Sobering data from the National Center for Education Statistics puts the "Average Freshman Graduation Rate" in Nevada at 51.3 percent for the 2007-08 school year — worst in the nation and 23.6 points lower than the national average.

NCES also notes that the drop-out rate in Nevada is 5.1 percent — 24 percent higher than the national average. In 2007-08 alone, 6,170 Silver State students dropped out of high school. Many, per the statistics, are destined for poverty and crime.

It is time to take action and cut administration costs, demand that students learn the curriculum or they fail, divide the large school districts to provide local control, and to use a voucher system.