A few years back a left-of-center "documentary" titled "Who Killed the Electric Car" pointed the finger at GM as a member of some oil cabal trying to maintain the dominance of gas-powered cars for all eternity. Ironically, GM had done more than any other company in researching and developing the electric car.

Increasing funds for public education won't result in drastic increases in student achievement. In fact, there is no significant relationship between spending and student achievement. Nevertheless, the advocates of education spending pray that Nevada will summon the "courage" to raise taxes.

Spending more per student has not produced the results we've been promised for the last 50 years. To make matters worse, it seems there is a very small but negative relationship between spending more money on education and low-income student achievement. Spending more money on education is a policy that appears to leave the poor behind.

When one takes capital outlays, school debt and other payments into the equation, Nevada's K-12 per-pupil spending was $10,420 in 2006 (in 2008 dollar values), which moves Nevada's per-pupil spending ranking up to 31st in the nation from the 44th ranking often cited. As interesting as this is, the per-pupil ranking is still useless.

Recently I reported that Nevada ranked No. 1 (excluding D.C) for under-reporting per-pupil spending in K-12 education. I recently discovered Nevada has another No. 1 education ranking in which it smashes the competition: debt-to-expenditure ratio.

Nevada's actual per-pupil spending in 2006 was $9,738 (total expenditures divided by student population). That figure is 32.5 percent higher than the state's reported official figure of $7,345.

Well, you can't be right all the time; I'm not omniscient, after all. Last week I reported Nevada's per-pupil spending to be $8,926. But I was wrong: It's higher.

Over the weekend, Terry Lanni, chairman and CEO of MGM Mirage, joined the tax-and-spend, big-government chorus in an article in which he called for more taxes on Nevada's businesses.

Election time often brings out the worst in America with mudslinging, the spin doctoring and the dead rising up from the graves to vote each election year.

The Las Vegas Sun continues its assault on education budget cuts, this time claiming that the cuts will destroy our economy. Not so fast, Las Vegas Sun editorial board. Let's inject some facts into this debate.