BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO

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Last week, the Washoe County School District touted another literally incredible increase in high school graduation rates. few days ago.

At 72 percent, we are now approaching former Superintendent Heath Morrison's latest miracle in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina.

COLD SHOWER

Alas, this week the Nevada Dept. of Education released statewide ratings.

"More than 20 percent of schools in Washoe County slipped in the ranking of 604 schools," wrote Reno Gazette-Journal reporter Siobahn McAndrew.

"The school accountability framework for the 2012-13 school year shows that 25 percent of schools in Nevada are ranked lower than the previous school year," she noted.

Dale Erquiaga, Gov. Brian Sandoval's cosmetic new education czar, creatively spun the sludge as the positive result of raised standards.

Erquiaga needs to do some homework.

He has a lot to do since he had no experience in education other than having once been student and a short stint as PR man for the Gomorrah South school district.

"His experience in education is as meager as the governor's commitment to it," the Reno News & Review editorialized last week.

Erquiaga's predecessor, James Guthrie, exhibited a nasty habit of criticizing Nevada's starvation-level school support and quit because he saw no hope of improvement.

THE MUSIC MAN

Like slick Prof. Harold Hill in Meredith Willson's Broadway classic, Morrison re-jiggered and re-shuffled the way graduation rates are calculated for two years.

Washoe's trustees scored national accolades, the Music Man was named national superintendent of the year, then got outta Dodge.

He blew town when he saw that the charade could not be sustained a third time and cast current Superintendent Pedro Martinez to play the patsy.

Morrison hired Martinez as his number two in 2009.

Martinez quickly jumped to Las Vegas where he apparently taught Gomorrah South Superintendent Dwight Jones how to sell the songbook of Willson's non-existent River City Boys Band.

Predictably, Jones and Martinez scored an incredible increase in graduation rates, then both abruptly quit.

Only the Barbwire last year reported that WCSD keeps two sets of books, one for public consumption, the other for the state.

They don't mesh.

Disclosure of the discrepancies resulted in the beginning of the neverending series We Don't Need No Education.

This is the 25th installment.

Morrison is no fool.

He took the Charlotte job knowing that his freshman year would be the first in which seniors could graduate under already-weakened standards.

He also knew that the Charlotte board was open to changing the way graduation rates are calculated, a perfect recipe for another instant miracle.

All three school administrations now bask in the glow of self-congratulation.

Please don't ask about graduation rates for black and brown kids in these parts.

JOCKOCRACY RULES

Last Tuesday, the Reno paper graphically reflected Nevada's educational priorities.

Next to a small front-page headline on the collapsing school ratings, the RGJ printed a huge full-color spread about a new $46 million (before interest) UNR athletic complex to be built with mostly borrowed money charged to future students and exempt from competitive bidding.

The story included a properly flattering photo of Gov. Veto El Obtúse, suitable for re-election brochures.

We don't need no education.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.

WEB EXTRAS...

HONOR YOUR DON. Keep sending comments supporting legendary Nevada photographer Don Dondero (1920-2003) for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame.

His life's work appeared worldwide, including the Tribune and most probably every one in Nevada.

Enlist in the campaign to install Big Don.

Please send me your memories and endorsements via e-mail or to P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.

The Barbwire got the late Reno Gazette-Journal columnist Guy Richardson elected last year.

Let's go for a repeat.

BARBWIRE.TV. Support the return of community TV to these parts.

If last year's elections didn't convince you of the need, the 2013 legislature certainly should have.

Join up. You may donate at ReSurge.TV or contact me.

This is important.

Thank you.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

____________

Andrew Barbano is a 44-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez Committee, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Daily Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Smoking Guns... See how your school did We Don't Need No Education The continuing Barbwire series ...and more ammo... The Post-Dated Recession: Pay me now or pay me later Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-6-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune The Post-dated Recession By Joshua H. Silavent / Daily Sparks Tribune / 5-3-2011 Union decline and rising inequality in two charts by Colin Gordon Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012 Used in journalist Mark Robison's extensive Hard Labor: Nevada unions tout role in helping workers, firms, economy (Sunday 2 Sept. 2012 Reno Gazette-Journal, page one, Reno Rebirth section of the print edition). Union men Jim Burrell, Paul McKenzie and Guy Louis Rocha did the movement proud. Not included in the RGJ online edition. WOMEN AND UNIONS — ORPHAN MAJORITIES The Barbwire Labor Day column Reno Gazette-Journal / 9-3-2012 Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row. The winning entries Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune Click here to view the show on your desktop RED flags flying low over Sparks Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune The wrath of self-righteous racism Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Government contacts Nev. congressional delegation Nevada Legislature State of Nevada Secretary of State Carson City Clark County City of Las Vegas Douglas County Reno City Council Sparks City Council Washoe County Commission Washoe Registrar of Voters The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?   The Dean's List    The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites. RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006 The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL Barbwire / 11-30-2008 Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry Barbwire / 8-3-2008 Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here? Barbwire / 6-15-2008 The 2008 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners The price of a piece / 6-17-2007 Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007 The Lady in the Red Dress 10-28-2007 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries ...and more ammo yet The life and times of Travus T. Hipp The best who ever was

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Copyright © 1982-2013 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 44-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

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