CHUCK MUTH: Some Christmastime drive-by Muthings

Read the following and identify the referenced gubernatorial transition team: Florida Gov.-elect Rick Scott or Nevada Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval:

"Governor-elect (name deleted) should arrive in the state capital with a wrecking ball to tear down a dozen state agencies and merge them together to save money and streamline services, advisers to the new governor say in a series of transition reports delivered to him this week. (Name deleted), who has promised to cut 6,000 state jobs on his way to creating 700,000 private-sector positions, could be the consolidation king if he adopts the proposals offered to him by his transition committees."

Yeah, I'm pretty bummed at the obvious answer, too.

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For those of you who still don't think the government is way too involved in our personal lives, consider last weekend's announcement by the U.S. Forest Service that sledding on Mt. Charleston was banned due to lack of snow. Our government nannies determined that sledding was too dangerous because "there are a lot of stumps and rocks that normally would be covered."

I guess the average citizen is just too stupid to see stumps and rocks that aren't covered by snow and, therefore, need the government to tell them when and where they can and can't go sledding. Good grief.

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Why are the Democrats and government bureaucrats talking about eliminating the Mammovan instead of eliminating the Nevada Arts Council in budget cutting discussions? Because threats to get rid of the Mammovan will produce an emotional outcry from the populace, while practically no one will care if the NAC is shuttered. That's why.

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If anyone really wanted to do something to help low-income children currently trapped in Nevada's underperforming government-run public schools, they'd read "Crazy Like a Fox: One Principal's Triumph in the Inner City" and implement Dr. Ben Chavis' prescriptions for true education reform that don't cost more money.

Dr. Chavis was principal of a middle school in Oakland, Calif. Before he took over in 2001, the school scored a bottom-of-the-barrel 436 (out of 1,000) on the state's Academic Performance Index. In 2009, the school chalked up a stunning 977, "the fifth-highest-scoring middle school in California out of about 1,300 middle schools in the state."

Pretty impressive, huh? Well, wait until you get a load of the demographics of the students who attained such excellence: "100 percent inner-city population, 99 percent minority, 78 percent non-native English speakers, and 88 percent who qualify for the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program." Oh, and the students "also have a 99 percent attendance rate."

If you really want to heal what's wrong with Nevada's underperforming public schools, call Dr. Chavis.

• Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a limited-government public policy organization.