MOUNT CHARLESTON Handicapper, writer found dead 3B

NEVADA & THE WEST

OBITUARY Los Alamos lab pioneer dies 5B
B
Sunday
April 22, 2018
reviewjournal.com

Study: Nevada has lower loan debt

By Natalie Bruzda
Las Vegas Review-Journal On flip side, state has high default rate to pay more than $15,000 a year to
attend a four-year public college.
In Nevada, in-state tuition and fees
Nevada usually finds itself at the two other states: Utah and Wyoming. “This is a ranking where Nevada, amount to just over $7,000 a year.
bottom of national education rank- That’s the good news. in a positive way, starts separating Nevada is part of the Western
ings. “Nevada is a little bit of a jewel out ourself from the rest of the nation,” Interstate Commission for Higher
But a new study examining stu- here,” said Norm Bedford, the direc- Bedford said. “It’s a wonderful sta- Education and lands in the middle
dent loan debt in America paints a tor of financial aid and scholarships tistic. We don’t always come in first of the pack for cost of tuition and
more positive picture. for UNLV. “The state Legislature and place.” fees. The state of Wyoming ranks
Nevada residents carry less student state lawmakers have done a good Caroline Ratcliffe, a senior fellow No. 1, charging students $5,055 for
loan debt than a majority of Amer- job of supporting higher education at the Urban Institute, said it could in-state tuition and fees, while Ari-
icans, according to a new report, the best they’re able to. And schools be because Nevada has a lower zona ranks No. 15, charging $10,639.
“Debt in America,” from the Urban have done a good job of keeping average cost in attending a public “I read that student loan indebt-
Institute. The median student loan tuition and fees low for students.” four-year college. edness is growing at an exponential
debt in Nevada is $14,218 — a debt The median student loan debt New Hampshire, a state with high
load that’s greater than that of only nationally is nearly $17,000. student loan debt, asks residents See STUDY 5B

JANE ANN
MORRISON
COMMENTARY

Memories of
Barbara Bush
in Las Vegas
T HE timing was perfect for my
one-and-only interview with
Barbara Bush.
In 1999, she was in Las Vegas
to raise money for son George W.
Bush’s 2000 presidential bid. No
longer first lady, she was more forth-
coming than she had been when her
husband was president from 1989 to
1993.
We talked about the downside
of third-party presidential candi-
dates, including Ross Perot, Patrick
Buchanan and yes, Donald Trump.
More about that later.
The feisty side of her that was kept
mostly private when her husband
was president emerged during our
45-minute interview in her Caesars
Benjamin Hager Las Vegas Review-Journal @benjaminhphoto
Palace suite on Oct. 13, 1999. So did Nevada State College students Kaitlyn Nanni, left, and Makayla Nichols lead a speech therapy session at the RiteCare Clinic.
her articulate, charming and gra-

Cultivating new figures of speech

cious side.
Her death at her Houston home
Tuesday at age 92 made me and
countless others recall memories.
A Houston neighbor told The New
York Times she always picked up her
dogs’ poop when she walked them,
Nevada State By Natalie Bruzda
Las Vegas Review-Journal
she wanted to add yellow
and orange rays to the sun.
“Yellow!”
The next one she knew,
even if someone offered to help,
demonstrating her down-to-earth
College works Cora Publow seemed
But when student teach-
er Kaitlyn Nanni asked her
too: “Green!”
The 3-year old has made
nature and independence even in
her later years. at expanding uncertain about making
her own Play-Doh heart
to describe the color of the
shape before her, she confi-
positive gains since she
began her speech therapy
Las Vegan Sig Rogich, who had
brunch with her and her husband, therapy plan creation.
She also wasn’t sure if
dently, and without hesita-
tion, shouted the answer: See SPEECH 7B
former President George G.W. Bush,
three weeks ago in Houston, recalled Video Dr. Beth Meyerowitz talks about Nevada State College’s speech pathology program. ▶ reviewjournal.com/speech_pathology
her keen insight. He remembered a
dinner in the American Embassy in
London during the G-7 summit in
1991 where he sat next to Princess
Diana and Barbara Bush sat across
Sensationalistic ‘news’ site’s
creator seeks Assembly seat
from them, and the three of them
talked extensively.
Afterward, she told Rogich, “She’s
lovely and charming and she’s very
fragile.” By Ramona Giwargis
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Video
Rogich thought that was insightful Paris Wade, who is running for the Nevada
of Mrs. Bush because in 1991, peo- Assembly, describes his “Liberty Writers”
ple didn’t know Diana’s marriage A man who made national head- website.
had been dissolving. lines for operating a sensationalist ▶ reviewjournal.com/paris_wade
Barbara Bush, then 74, agreed to right-wing “news” website he credits
an interview with me as a favor to with helping elect President Donald
Rogich, her husband’s media adviser Trump is running for the Nevada down by essentially a giant bureau-
and a family friend. Afterward she Assembly — a move he said was cracy, doesn’t happen to anybody
attended a $1,000-a-plate luncheon inspired by Facebook shutting down else.”
that raised $250,000 for her son’s his page. To accomplish that, the Tennessee
successful 2000 campaign. “I started my business in my living native, who spent years traveling
The next day — Oct. 14, 1999 room with my best friend,” said Paris across California and living in Airb-
— the front page of the Las Vegas Wade, 28. “I was lucky to be able to nb rentals before settling in Nevada, Bizuayehu Tesfaye Las Vegas Review-Journal
Review-Journal was dominated by a talk to millions of people across this is aiming to unseat Democrat San- Paris Wade, who made national
country. I want to make sure what headlines for operating a fake news
See MORRISON 6B happened to me, where I was shut See WADE 6B website, is running for Nevada Assembly.

Two wheels.
One fast quote.
geico.com | 1-800-442-9253 | Local Office
Limitations apply. See geico.com for more details. GEICO & affiliates. Washington, DC 20076 © 2017 GEICO

▶ SPEECH
Continued from Page 1B
with Nevada State College students
at the RiteCare Clinic in Las Vegas.
“She was having difficulty with
vocabulary, naming objects,” said
Marsha Steinberger, adjunct pro-
fessor and clinical supervisor at the
college. “She knew what they were,
but she didn’t have the name for the
object. So now we’re really seeing
that she’s listening, she’s under-
standing more, and she’s showing us
that she now knows the vocabulary
we were working with.”
Cora is one success story of many
from a partnership between Nevada
State College and the Scottish Rite
Foundation that began in January
2017. The college has helped about
45 children receive free speech ther-
apy — a private therapy session can
run up to $120 an hour — but clinic
supervisors hope they can expand to
reach more children in the next few
years.
A new master’s in speech pathol-
ogy program, which the state Board
of Regents green-lighted last month,
will pave the way for that expansion.
“We have more kids than we can
serve right now,” said Beth Meye-
rowitz, an assistant professor in the
college’s School of Education. “One
night a week is not enough. We are
really hoping that the Scottish Rite
will work with us and continue to
grow the clinic.”
‘Bold commitment’
While the clinic is just over a year
old, the graduate program is a de-
cade in the making.
Vickie Shields, provost and execu-
tive vice president for Nevada State
College, said school officials began
planning for the advanced speech
pathology degree in 2008, but the
Great Recession put a halt to that.
With student enrollments and the
economy picking up , Shields said
now is the time to go back to the idea.
Dennis Pothoff, dean of the School
of Education, agreed.
▶ WADE
Continued from Page 6B
but he said he’s talking to educators
and administrators and “investigat-
ing what I can do.”
Wade did not take a position
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL Sunday, April 22, 2018
Benjamin Hager Las Vegas Review-Journal @benjaminhphoto
Lori Brown, top left, and Nevada State College student Jennifer Johnson direct a
speech therapy session at the RiteCare Clinic. The college is hoping a new master’s
program in speech pathology will allow it to help more children.
“Our president has really made a
bold commitment, and our campus
has made a bold commitment to
building out the School of Educa-
tion,” Pothoff said. “The rationale is
that the state of Nevada is in a situ-
ation where we need to find more
teachers and more speech patholo-
gists.”
In 2016, the American
Speech-Language-Hearing Asso-
ciation placed Nevada last with
respect to the number of per capita
speech-language pathologists in the
nation.
The state also falls below the
national standard of requiring
speech-language pathologists in
schools to have a master’s degree.
“In Nevada, because of the ex-
treme need, we allow graduates of
baccalaureate programs to work
in schools — not by desire, but by
need,” Pothoff said. “We just don’t
have enough speech pathologists.”
The Clark County School District
employs 324 speech pathologists,
and 35 vacancies are posted for the
2018-19 school year. About two-
thirds of the district’s pathologists
hold bachelor’s degrees, Meyerow-
itz said, adding that Nevada State
College has customized its bache-
lor’s curriculum toward preparing
on gun control measures such as
banning bump stocks and assault
weapons, but he said the topic is
a hot one among his prospective
constituents.
“I’ve talked to a lot of gun owners
in my district, and the biggest fear is
legislation like that will infringe on
students to work with children.
“They learn about adults, and we
try to take a lifespan approach to
classes, but in terms of therapy, we
focus really heavily on children and
primarily preschool through middle
school,” Meyerowitz said.
Quest for accreditation
With board approval in hand,
Nevada State College officials are
now knee-deep in the American
Speech-Language-Hearing Associa-
tion’s accreditation process.
Meyerowitz said she should
receive feedback from the associa-
tion early next month on the status
of the school’s lengthy proposal. If
it is approved, the association will
conduct a site visit in the fall, and by
that time, the college hopes to have
in place two new full-time speech
language faculty members.
“My guess is we’ll get a few re-
visions, and as soon as we get the
word, make sure the curriculum is
in place, faculty is in place,” she said.
“It will really kick into high gear at
that point. But we’ve been so bless-
ed with so much support from the
community, that we can do it.”
If all goes according to plan, the
association will award candidacy
status next spring, and the college
their Second Amendment rights,”
Wade said.
Nevada Press Association Ex-
ecutive Director Barry Smith said
“people have to make up their own
minds” about Wade.
“That’s the great thing about
democracy. Anybody can run for
FROM THE COVER 7B
can begin accepting applications for
a fall 2019 start date.
Getting to that point is arduous
work, but when it comes time to
find students to fill the open slots for
Nevada State College’s first master’s
program, the college will have no
trouble, Meyerowitz said.
“We hear all the time, ‘If there was
a program here, I would apply,’ ” she
said. “Most of the programs we’ve
spoken with, they get a minimum of
150 applications for 20 spots.”
The college plans to accept 20
part-time students — slots geared
toward those who are already
working in the Clark County School
District — and 20 full-time students
for its first cohort. School officials
eventually would like to expand to
106 students a year by 2024.
“It’s kind of writing one more new
chapter for Nevada State College,”
Shields said. “We really have author-
ity in our mission, from our incep-
tion, to become a middle-tier and
regionally comprehensive college.”
Makayla Nichols, a senior at the
college, hopes her name will be on
one of those open seats.
“I really just want to learn more,
know more,” she said.
Nichols had changed her major six
times before discovering her passion
for speech therapy and sees a mas-
ter’s degree as the next logical step,
especially if she ever needs to leave
the state for work.
“I started taking the classes, and
it just resonated with me,” she said.
“I didn’t want to change my major
again.”
As she and Nanni wrapped up
their speech therapy session with
Cora, they asked her to choose a
Minnie Mouse sticker.
“What is Minnie holding?” Nichols
asked.
“Duck,” Cora said, and proudly
showed her sticker to visitors in the
room.
Contact Natalie Bruzda at
nbruzda@reviewjournal.com or 702-
477-3897. Follow @NatalieBruzda
on Twitter.
office,” Smith said. “We operate on
the premise that voters will elect the
people who best represent them.”
Contact Ramona Giwargis
at rgiwargis@reviewjournal.
com or 702-380-4538. Follow
@RamonaGiwargis on Twitter.