All politics are local

This week's article of interest for me was the one from the September 2nd Chronicle of Higher Education. Here's the link: http://chronicle.com/article/In-Nevada-Harsh-Economic/128806/

In brief, the article mentions the diminishing funding for higher education in the state of Nevada over the past three years, due in large part to the economic meltdown in the gaming industry in Las Vegas which has driven the state's tax revenues. Less gamblers equals less taxes equals less revenues equals less funding for higher ed. Completely makes sense right?

But my conspiratorial little mind focused in on an interesting statistical element to that article. It mentiond that Las Vegas was near the bottom of the country in terms of 25-64 year old job holders in the local economy who held bachelor's degrees. Translated another way, one traditionally has not needed higher education to get a paying job in Las Vegas, or presumably other parts of the state that rely on tourism and casinos.

Here's where my political speculation comes in....one can only imagine that in such a location, with the gaming industry holding such power in determining the state's financial priorities, that not only is higher education not a top priority, is it perhaps a source of agitation to many powerful interests in the state. I can only imagine that among the academics in Nevada are included those faculty who study such things as the addictive nature of gambling and the social cost of enabling that addiction in so many new gamblers. Is it possible that the faculty who conduct such research were among the first to face "unfortunate budget cuts that have cost you your job"? The article didn't really go there, but I can't help but wonder....