Joe Enge Is New Deputy Director of Nevada State Office of Energy

Joe Enge is about as qualified to be the Deputy Director of the NSOE as, well, me. Enge used to be a high school history teacher and is now an educational analyst for local conservative entities. So the real question is, what kind of posterior activity, besides some attention directed in the general direction of Chuck Muth’s and Ron Knecht’s, did Enge engage in to convince Gibbons (or some obtuse advisor) to place the final brick in the wall of crazy surrounding the governor’s mansion?

For those of you who don’t know who Mr. Enge is, inspite his brief brush with fame in 2005, here’s a brief run down. He is a former Carson City High 11th grade history teacher who started a local campaign to teach U.S. History, pre Civil War in a curriculum that covered U.S. History, post Civil War regardless of the fact that that history is taught in other parts of the Carson City School District history curriculum.

Enge leveraged his brief fame into a political career. He is chairman of EdWatch, a conservative state education “watchdog” organization and is an education analyst for the Nevada Policy Research Institute which expended a significant amount of effort toward defeating legislative proposals for state-wide all-day kindergarten. You can get a gander at NPRI’s conservative funding foundations at Media Transparency. You have to hand to Enge though, he got himself elected to the Carson City School Board after the district bought out his teaching contract to get rid of him. Now that’s chutzpah.

Recently, Enge has been in the news for different reasons. He was recently assaulted by other male patrons in the bathroom and later in the bar of the Carson City Nugget early in the morning on September 23rd. Most amusing is this quote from the Nevada Appeal on the incident:

He said this is the second time he has been assaulted by someone he didn’t know and it makes him wonder about the motivation.

Enge is a controversial character in Carson City education. In 2005, after the history teacher and author was let go from Carson High School for unsatisfactory classroom evaluations, Enge fired back that he was being singled out because he disobeyed orders to stop teaching history before 1865. The battle made national headlines.

In the last election, Enge surprised many people when he won a school board seat.

Since he’s been in that position, he’s filed two complaints of open meeting law violations.

Enge also writes articles as an education analyst for the Nevada Policy Research Institute, that often bring about ire.

“I’m a hundred percent sure it’s related to who I am. But is it something I wrote, is it something on the school board?” he asked.

Its obviously not amusing when anyone is assaulted, but it is amusing when even Enge realizes the many ways in which he may have offended local citizens. Perhaps it has something to do with being someone who seems to enjoy spending an inordinate amount of time and effort seeking attention that’s not always so positive? I don’t know, but Deputy Directory of the Nevada State Office of Energy? What exactly are his qualifications for that position? Enge will probably fit right in with Director Hatice Gecol who threatened to shut the press out of the NSOE’s discussions on global warming because she didn’t like an article by the Las Vegas Sun’s Lisa Mascaro. At least Gecol has some qualifications. This looks to be a political gift to someone. The question is, who?

Oh, Enge’s also a good driver if you’re not a fence.

Similar Posts:

• Heck of A Job Hatice
• Carson City Democrats Say No To Fox News Debate
• Taking It To The Streets

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