Graduation rates

The state’s education chief offered a rather muted response to news that Nevada’s high school graduation rate ticked upward this year — and with good reason.

Preliminary numbers show that 72.6 percent of students who entered high school in the 2012-13 school year earned their diplomas in 2016. That’s up from 70.9 percent last year and 70 percent in 2014.

“We’ve been seeing some modest increases” recently, Steve Canavaro, Nevada’s superintendent of public instruction, told the Review-Journal last week.

In addition, the dropout rate receded slightly, declining to 2.7 percent for the past school year compared with 2.8 percent a year earlier.

All this is progress, as far as it goes. But districts across the state continue to bestow credentials on students who are unprepared for the rigors of the university or even to succeed in entry level jobs. Where’s the value in that?

ACT results from the class of 2016 reveal that just 8 percent of Nevada students attained the scores necessary in English, math, reading and science to be considered ready for college in all four subjects. Not every student must graduate to the next level, of course. But marks from the college entrance exam reveal that many Nevada kids are being handed A’s and B’s in high school, yet can’t handle basic math computations or compose a cogent paragraph.

This is borne out by data from the state university system. An astonishing 57.7 percent of 2014 Clark County School District graduates who enrolled in a Nevada university or community college required a remedial class in either math or English, up from 55 percent in 2013. Some 45.6 percent of those receiving a Millennium Scholarship — supposedly among the best and brightest students — required remediation upon enrolling at a Nevada school.

The district is exploring initiatives designed to address the issue, including “stronger programs that senior year” to expose students to “more mathematics, English and reading,” said Mark Barton, chief student achievement officer. That might indeed be a good start. Taxpayers may be surprised to know that many Clark County high school seniors carry a minimal class load and are off campus by mid morning. “We know we need to improve,” Mr. Barton said. Until then, the district’s rising graduation rate only obscures multiple other issues.

I read Steve Sebelius’s Wednesday column, “Some get hurt leaping from the Trump train.” At the end of the column, he excoriates Christians who continue to support the morally defective Donald Trump by implying they are making some sort of deal with the devil. What he fails to understand is that most Christians, as well as many conservative secular voters, see Hillary Clinton as someone who has already sold her soul to the devil.

While Mr. Trump is imperfect (who isn’t), his record for moral corruptness pales in comparison to Mrs. Clinton’s. Google “Hillary Clinton scandals” and the page explodes. Scandals such as using the IRS to harass many of the women Bill Clinton assaulted, covering up for Bill and smudging the character of the women who dared to report the crimes.

And let’s not forget scandals such as looting the White House, Filegate, Emailgate, Chinagate, Travelgate, Whitewater, Snipergate, Rose Law Firmgate, Pardongate, Cattle Futuresgate, Saul Alinskygate, Iranian Fundraisinggate, Clinton Foundationgate, Benghazi, etc., etc. I could go on but there isn’t enough space to name them all.

As for Mr. Sebelius, I have a scripture verse for him: “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

If you think for one minute that Donald Trump got into the race for president to win, you’re wrong. He got in to make sure that Hillary Clinton is the winner.

The Clintons and Trumps have been friends for years. Mr. Trump was as shocked as all of us when he won the nomination. That done, now he has to keep screwing up to make sure she wins. Just watch Mrs. Clinton at the debates. She is looking right at Mr. Trump and saying, “Keep going.” The more he talks, the more she goes up in the polls.

No one using both sides of the brain would do the things Mr. Trump has and expect to win.

If nothing else comes out of this election cycle, we will have to give Donald Trump a thumps up on how he has exposed not only the Democrats but also the Republicans. These parties are a disgrace to this country.

And as you read between the lines each day, the lesson from all this is how these people want to keep power and money in their pockets — and the press goes along with it as if it’s nothing.

This really shows this country needs a big change. But where are Kennedyand

Memo to Donald Trump re the 2005 video: You weren’t in a locker room. You weren’t a teenage boy. If you had been, and your mother had overheard you, you would have been reprimanded, even if you were in junior high.

What you said was offensive. It embarrassed and likely shamed your families. As a presidential candidate, you have diminished the stature and dignity of our country in the eyes of many — our own citizens and around the world.

Your so-called apologies were negated by a lack of any observable contrition; by your “but Bill Clinton did worse” defense; and by your angry threats of more slurs and lawsuits if other recordings come out. It’s your behavior that was at fault, not the fact that it was discovered.

The incident and your response have resurrected painful memories of sexual assault for many, many women and men.

Please stop it. Stop the trash-talking. Stop assuming you can assault women because you are a “star.” Stop the threats.