Kindergarten no answer to failing education grades

If you're the kind of person who falls for those Nigerian "confidential business proposals" from Prince Alyusi Islassis of Lagos, you just might be gullible enough to buy into this full-day kindergarten scam being perpetuated by Nevada's education bureaucracy and the leadership of the Nevada Democratic party.

Let's start with the results of this year's Quality Counts report showing Nevada ranked 44th in the nation "for student proficiency in math and reading and graduation."

Chris Swanson, director of the project that compiled ratings, summed it all up rather starkly: "What we see here is Nevada very clearly has low achievement at the elementary and secondary school levels ... and there has not been much improvement over the last couple of years, so it's a pretty unflattering picture of what public schools are doing in Nevada right now."

Talk about a master of understatement.

Nevada's superintendent of public instruction, Keith Rheault, responded to the rating results by saying, "In general, I always tell the Legislature that you have to take these reports with a grain of salt."

Oh, please. I guarantee you that when the Legislature reconvenes next month, Rheault won't be telling legislators to "take with a grain of salt" that flawed "Adequacy Study" from last year that said taxpayers should pony up an additional $1 billion for education. No, no, no. That study Rheault will encourage legislators to accept as gospel.

Despite taking the Quality Counts report "with a grain of salt," Rheault nevertheless used the results to pitch the education scam of the year, contending that Nevada's dismal ranking is "an argument for expanding full-time kindergarten in state."

But as it turns out, the states that ranked No. 1 and No. 3 in the survey - Virginia and Minnesota respectively - do not have statewide full-day kindergarten programs. In fact, kindergarten itself isn't even mandatory in Virginia. Which means a lot of kids in the No. 1 state for education quality don't even attend half-day kindergarten, let alone full-day.

To which Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus (D-Las Vegas), Nevada's leading proponent of full-day kindergarten, responded: "I don't think you necessarily look at what other states are doing to compare."

The hypocrisy of that statement by Titus is absolutely breathtaking. Her entire campaign for governor last year was based on the contention that Nevada was "on the bottom of every good list and the top of every bad list." So Sen. Titus is absolutely happy to "look at what other states are doing to compare" - but only when the results suit her pre-determined political agenda.

Which brings us to Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas), who told Nevada Appeal reporter Geoff Dornan that full-day kindergarten has "proven its success." Hardly.

First, the program has only been in place in Nevada for four months. Four months isn't even one full school year. To suggest that we in Nevada can proclaim full-day kindergarten a "proven success" after only four months is ludicrous.

Secondly, no matter what position you take on any issue, you can dig up some report or study to back up your position. And the fact is, for every report or study lauding the benefits of full-day kindergarten, there's a counter-study that shows just the opposite.

And then there's reality: (1) We can't hire enough teachers in Nevada as it is to fill existing classrooms. How in the world are we going to hire the additional teachers to teach full-day kindergarten? (2) We can't build classrooms fast enough to accommodate the current student population. How in the world are we going to build the additional classrooms full-day kindergarten will require?

There is one, and only one, true solution to the problem of Nevada's mediocre government-run education system: Universal parental choice and statewide school vouchers. Anything less is just a whole lot of snake-oil.

• Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a non-profit public policy advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. The views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citizen Outreach. He may be reached at chuck@citizenoutreach.com.