Republicans criticize university head's comments about parents

LAS VEGAS " Republicans have sharply criticized university system Chancellor Jim Rogers' comments about parents in his State of the System address.

Rogers, who has been fighting Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons' proposed drastic budget cuts to higher education, took aim at an apathetic public in Friday's speech.

"Your only relationship with the education system is to ship your unprepared kids to school, not with the expectation of success, but with the demand that an education system, inadequately funded, develop and/or repair children that you as a parent did not prepare for school or support while your children attended school," Rogers said.

In a joint statement, Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa Valley, and Nevada Republican Party Chair Sue Lowden said it's unfair to blame parents for education failures.

"Jim Rogers owes every caring parent in the state a public apology," they said. "For Chancellor Rogers to blame the failure of the government-run education system on parents is nothing short of outrageous."

Andy Matthews, vice president of communications for the conservative think-tank Nevada Policy Research Institute, said legislative spending on higher education increased 60 percent between the 2002 and 2007 fiscal years.

"Chancellor Rogers provided an outstanding example of what happens when Nevada's public officials choose to engage in finger-pointing at the expense of taking responsibility or offering innovative solutions to our fiscal challenges," Matthews said in a statement.

Rogers, in his address, said parents might have to face tax increases and sacrifice so that their children can go to college.

"You have to take part in your child's education," Rogers said. "Your responsibility does not stop as they walk out the door to catch the bus."

State Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said in a statement that some sacrifices, including cuts to education, might be necessary.

But Horsford said Gibbons' proposed overall 36 percent cut to higher education is "too much."

Under the governor's plan, the cuts would be roughly 50 percent at University of Nevada campuses in Las Vegas and Reno.