CARSON CITY — Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, called for education improvements, clean energy development and a prostitution ban as ways to help the state’s economy in his address to the Nevada State Legislature today.
The Assembly and Senate held a joint floor session with a packed gallery at 11 a.m. for Reid’s address. While the room fell silent during Reid’s call to outlaw brothels, his comments for improving education were met with much applause from both parties.
“Our problems weren’t created in a day, and they won’t be solved overnight,” Reid said during his half-hour speech. “We know how to bounce back, though. Our challenge is great, but it isn’t new. Nevada has always been a work in progress.”
Reid defended the stimulus package, stating that it has kept thousands of teachers in the classroom and that Nevada’s most struggling schools will receive grants. He said that Congress is working to reform the No Child Left Behind Act in order to make it work for more of the state’s schools since education cannot be a “one-size fits all approach.”
In response to proposed budget cuts to both K-12 and higher education, Reid said it undermines the most important goal: “Preparing Nevada’s students for the global economy.”
“We have to recognize that our children’s education is not about tenure and teachers unions. It’s not about budgets, or taxes or profits. It’s not about yesterday’s alliances or adversaries,” he said to much applause. “It’s not about us at all. It’s about our children, our students and their future.”
He said although Nevada is low in the ranks in terms of education, the state is at the front of the “clean-energy revolution.”
The state needs to continue welcoming international companies to make Nevada the hub of the renewable energy industry, he said.
“Now is our chance to turn that energy into jobs,” Reid said.
Reid said part of attracting more business to the state means abolishing prostitution. He targeted Storey County, where one of the biggest businesses is legal prostitution, saying that he’s talked with families and business owners who don’t want their homes to be surrounded by the sex industry.
“Let’s have an adult conversation about an adult subject,” Reid said as the owner of the Bunny Ranch and sex workers listened from the gallery. “Nevada needs to be known as the first place for innovation and investment — not as the last place where prostitution is still legal. When the nation thinks about Nevada, it should think about the world’s newest ideas and newest careers, not about its oldest profession.”
After his speech, Reid further explained that he thinks the abolishment should be a county option.
“We need new businesses to come to Nevada, people who are going to bring jobs here.”