Failure. It's the American Way of Life!

Ever wonder why Nevada ranks lowest in the country in all things academic? A lot of it has to do with the underfunding of education and the willingness of our state government to allow casinos and mining to rake in the cash while not paying their fair share of taxes. However, there is more to the failure than that.

Clark County School District, the fifth largest school district in the country, has made it ridiculously easy for students to fail high school before they even get to high school. How? By having such low standards that students can go through three years of middle school and get promoted to high school with having only passed a total of eleven core class semesters.

Pupils currently enrolled in sixth grade must complete one semester of mathematics, one semester of English or reading and one semester of science with passing grades for promotion to seventh grade.

Pupils currently enrolled in seventh grade must complete one semester of mathematics, one semester of English or reading, one semester of science, and one semester of social studies with passing grades for promotion to eighth grade.

Pupils currently enrolled in eighth grade must have completed three semesters of Math and three semesters of English or reading with passing grades during the seventh and eighth grade years for promotion to high school.

Students in CCSD middle schools take a total of six classes, with two semesters per year. In 6th and 7th grade, they take English and reading. In 8th grade, they just take English. Out of the 10 semesters of English and reading they take, they only need to pass four semesters to go into high school. And that's just one example.

Until the school district stops pandering to parents and the uneducated, loud masses that make up Clark County and sets the standards higher, we will continue to have students failing and dropping out at an alarming rate. And why shouldn't they? They have already been taught, by the age of 11, that failure is not only acceptable, but rewarded.