From Citizen Outreach:

By: Chuck Muth

NEVADA’S DROPOUT FACTORIES

“An analysis of Education Department data conducted by Johns Hopkins researchers for the Associated Press shows that about 1,700 schools nationwide are eligible for the ‘dropout factory’ label,” reported the AP yesterday. “That means their senior class is made up of 60 percent or fewer of the kids who entered as freshmen. While some transferred, most dropped out, according to the researchers. The data looks at senior classes for three years in a row to make sure local events like plant closures aren’t to blame for the low retention rates.”

Utah is ranked 50th in the survey, having no dropout factories whatsoever within its borders. Nevada, on the other hand, ranks 3rd in the nation, with 26 of 59 schools earning the dropout factory label. Only South Carolina (#1) and Florida (#2) have a higher percentage of dropout factories in their states.

Surely that means we need to pump more money into the public school systems here, right?

For the complete list of Nevada’s dropout factories (15 in Clark, 1 in Elko, 1 in Nye and 9 in Washoe), click HERE.

BEWARE OF LIBERAL GOBLINS

While you and your kids are going door-to-door trick-or-treating tonight, those wacky Lefties over at the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) will be out in force going door-to-door registering voters. “This will be fun for us and for those answering the doors on Halloween night,” said Ireri Rivas, a PLAN organizer in Reno in a press release announcing the effort.

In light of the Associated Press report yesterday morning that Hillary Clinton is “the top choice when people were asked which major 2008 presidential candidate would make the scariest Halloween costume,” the odds are the PLAN folks will be dressed up like their American idol. So if someone looking like Hillary Clinton knocks on your door tonight, you might want to consider unleashing the hounds.

GOP’S TOP GUN

If Republicans in the state assembly are to have any chance whatsoever of gaining the majority before the 2011 legislative session when districts will once again be redrawn, they’ll need to pick up at least two or three seats in 2008 – then pick up another four or five in 2010 when ten Democrat incumbents will be term-limited out of office, including Speaker Barbara Buckley.

It’s all those open seats which makes it at least theoretically possible for the GOP in Nevada’s lower house to “pull a Gingrich” and emerge from the political wilderness the way House Republicans did in 2004. To pull it off, they’re going to need to recruit superior candidates and raise enough money to defeat a couple of vulnerable Democrat incumbents next year. And they appear to have gotten off to a good start with the recruitment of Sean Fellows to run against Assemblywoman Susan Gerhardt in Clark County.

They also seem to be taking seriously the need to raise Fellows some serious money for his run, as this list of co-hosts for an upcoming fundraiser indicates. If each member of the host committee contributes just the minimum requested donation of $500, that would start the Republican challenger off with well over $25,000. And that doesn’t even include the money that’ll be raised from the guests who will attend.

That alone will immediately make Fellows a serious, credible candidate. And running against a vulnerable opponent in a district with only a slight Democrat advantage makes this race potentially the best chance for a GOP pickup a year from now.

But here’s the big question: Will the Assembly Republican Caucus ENDORSE Fellows prior to the GOP primary next August – or will it stay neutral, as it has historically done in the past, should some other Republican jump into this race? If they’re serious about winning the majority, they better start endorsing their top candidates…or they’re going to have a lot of trouble recruiting other high-quality candidates like Sean Fellows.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“Following the Gibbons Rule of Summits, the Nov. 7 meeting will be closed to the media, just as the foreclosure summit was. But that’s understandable: Wouldn’t want any of us Fourth Estaters witnessing Jim Rogers slugging the governor or Jim Gibson slugging Dina Titus. Makes sense.”

- Jon Ralston, Flash, 10/30/07 (Update: Ralston reports this morning that the summit will now be open to the media after all.)