Dear Editor:
Reality-based Republicans and Democrats alike understand that Americas deteriorating infrastructure is converting this once exemplary nation into a Third World laggard. Education, a major component of infrastructure, is much more than just buildings: it is an essential means by which the knowledge of a culture is passed to the next generation. How does SWOS measure up in these contexts?
Except for one building, the SWOS campus consists of trailers that were already well used when they were donated as hand-me-downs 25 years ago. Today these buildings are literally falling apart and must be replaced for the school to continue to be viable.
SWOS benefits the entire county by educating students who do not thrive at the three local high schools. At SWOS, they do thrive, and nearly 400 have graduated. Had they become dropouts, their costs to the community would have been far greater than the cost to educate them at SWOS.
It has been suggested that SWOS could meet its financial needs by tightening its belt and becoming more efficient. The reality is that SWOS budgets have been cut year after year and allocations per student are far less than the state average. SWOS has managed to survive only because its staff have economized and economized again; and they have found outside sources of funding. It was SWOS students who built the daycare center and laid out, built, and maintain most of the landscaping..
Our community will inflict a blow on itself if it does not approve funds to supplement the sizeable grant SWOS has won from outside sources to replace its exhausted physical plant. Will the community be penny wise and pound foolish? Will it, in a time of deep recession that has caused much pain throughout Montezuma County, particularly for those in the construction industry, forego desperately needed construction jobs? Or will the community vote to rebuild an institution that benefits us all, whether we realize it or not.
Ned Harper
Mancos
Via e-mail