Commentary: Voters in Doña Ana and Luna counties will decide the fate of three school district bonds.
In comparison to the $50 million bond sought by the Las Cruces Public Schools and $38 million by the Gadsden Independent School District, the Deming Public Schools seeks $10 million. None would lead to an increase in taxes. Voters are simply being asked to authorize these agencies to issue general obligation bonds, repaid from existing taxes, to raise money to improve existing facilities.
General obligation bonds are a routine source of revenue for public facilities and infrastructure, but in Luna County passage is not assured. Prior to 2018, the city of Deming has never asked voters to authorize bonds. Although our $27 million school bond passed in 2014, securing funding for two new school buildings, voters here have also rejected school bonds in recent cycles.
My conversations in the community over the past decade reflect a recurring desire by some voters to “send a message” or punish the school district for its performance. This year, some have brought up the previous DPS administration’s accounting scandal – but the sentiment is older than that and goes deeper.
There is a mistaken view that money for maintenance and upgrades of physical facilities is some sort of reward for school administrators. If any district has improved student achievement by allowing buildings to deteriorate, I have yet to see the evidence. If saving $100 today to pay for a $1000 emergency later is a wise use of public funds, I have yet to hear a compelling case.
The state of a community’s schools is not only a test of money management. It is also a measure of how we regard some of the most vulnerable members of the community.
The gymnasium at Deming’s Chaparral Elementary is an example to consider.
This building, erected a quarter-century prior to the Americans with Disabilities Act, designed its gymnasium to sit in a bowl in the ground. It can only be accessed by navigating stairs – including the emergency exit. It is the only space that can accommodate school assemblies as well as physical education. It does not provide for safe evacuation of students, much less an inclusive environment for students requiring mobility devices. Not only does it fail to comply with the ADA, it scoffs at it.
After nearly 28 years as law, the ADA is perhaps better known as a bureaucratic hurdle and expense than as a measure of social progress and integration. In 1990, it was a political victory affirming the right of people who require accommodation to participate fully in community life without being segregated.
Rebuilding a gym, installing ramps, widening doorways or bathroom stalls – these projects may not appear to be as exciting as, say, building a shiny new high school. Yet for a student to join her peers in all school activities, a thing the majority take for granted, as an affirmation of her dignity and full membership in the community, it is a fine edifice indeed.
All three districts are asking permission to raise money, without raising taxes, to improve existing houses of learning. If we expect teachers to be effective and for our students to achieve (two complicated notions we can explore at another time), we must permit public investment in up-to-date, safe, comfortable facilities that do not ostracize some students – or even one – because of special needs.
Algernon D’Ammassa writes the “Desert Sage” column, appearing weekly in the Deming Headlight and Las Cruces and Silver City Sun News. Share your thoughts at adammassa@demingheadlight.com.