But some educators think there also is increased interest among Nevada citizens in pursuing education beyond high school. Las Vegas is so full of stories about young people who make so much tip money parking cars or waiting on tables, and who don t report much of that income to the Internal Revenue Service, that earning a college degree seems a waste of time. It s true that we have a full-employment economy right now and kids don t need a college degree to get jobs. But there s a growing realization that these are dead-end jobs and they ll need education and training to survive in the future. We have a huge marketing job to do, says Chancellor Richard Jarvis of the University and Community College System of Nevada, referring to the state s 38.7 percent college-going rate, lowest in the nation.
People believe it s important and they ll pay for it, with increased taxes if they have to.
No they won t, responded Senate Majority Leader William Raggio, a veteran Republican politician and a strong supporter of higher education. If we have the money, we ll spend as much as we can on the colleges but the public is not in any mood for tax increases. There are a few dark clouds on Nevada s economic horizon. Hotel-casino profits dropped almost 19 percent in the last fiscal year and hotel occupancy rates are down. College officials who remember the sharp cuts in higher education spending that resulted from the recession of the early 1990s are apprehensive that it could happen again.