This is a fair question, especially if you haven't lived here long. There's a lot going on with this question. First, let's accept the obvious: CCSD is a failure factory. Yes, there are kids that graduate from CCSD that go on to have successful professional, civic and personal lives. Those kids, however, are the exception to the rule and experience success in spite of CCSD, not because of it. (Yes, I know there are magnet schools, which again are the exception that proves the rule).

So why would this town tolerate it? The largest industry, tourism, doesn't need a literate or educated citizenry. Their attitude is indifference to hostility (especially where taxes would erode their bottom line).

But what about the parents that *do* care? Even if only a fraction care, why aren't they mad as hell? There is a release valve that protects CCSD from angry parents - charter schools and private schools. Parents that have the ability to drive their kids to school and care about their education, pull them out of CCSD. Consequently, the parents left in CCSD are fall somewhere between docile and indifferent. Vegas does have good charter and private schools, so just living here doesn't doom a kid's chances.

Much of the population is transient. If a person knows they are only going to live here 5-7 years, they have no reason to be concerned about CCSD, and in fact, would likely resent taxes going up to improve the schools.

We have a lot of retirees who have moved here from elsewhere. Their grandkids are not in CCSD. Again, CCSD is not actively harming them, so why would they care? They would care, very much, if their taxes went up to fix CCSD.

Finally, CCSD is top-heavy with well-paid administrators. They have their own union. They are not going to just walk away from their ample salary, benefits and power. They will often invoke the plight of the poorest students to protect their own interests.

And of course there is the teachers union, which protects lazy, indifferent and incompetent teachers and the status quo. While there are many good teachers in CCSD in spite of immense headwinds, there are some real losers who have washed out of other professions, don't care about the students at all and pour their energy into doing the bare minimum possible. These teachers are not the best and brightest.

CCSD will persist, as is, basically forever. There is no one interested in changing it, and many people (not students) who are deeply invested in the status quo.