7-07-2024 4:21am

A Play for Alamogordo Public Education Tax Dollars…

Publicly funded charter schools, a play for your tax dollars…

Alamogordo is considered a rural small town community. Towns that traditionally can only afford one high school are considered rural and many times that monopolistic approach causes resentment in a community, opposition to support in public education and rebel groups that create factions of rebellion against the established school system.

A community gets played!

After a rebellion is unleashed, the game is then played to “save our kids.” A group forms, in an attempt to create a charter school to “save the day” they propose a curriculum justification to fill a fictional need for the rural community that is missing, and they rally public support for a perceived alternative that being a charter school of which the very instigators now control and the public taxpayer funds as well with little oversight.

Sound familiar Alamogordo?
First there was the rebellion, the filing of lawsuits by Lori Black, the board of Flickinger against the school system, then multiple others, an effort to force out the past 2 Superintendents, the unnecessary investigations costing taxpayers thousands against past superintendents Dr Moore and Pam Renteria, that have yielded minimal results but created headlines and huge payouts to attorneys and leading to no findings of wrongdoing. And then members of the very same group, that created the controversy, have now formed the group to “save the day” and have proposed a new charter school for Alamogordo.

The History of other rural districts shows and Alamogordo Public Schools new school board will soon find that out that Rural Schools Run On Tight Budgets and loosing funds impacts quality education.

One does not remove nearly a million dollars growing to $2.6 Million in year 5, from a rural school budget without really feeling it. Most rural districts are lean operations already. The minute a charter starts “redirecting” tax dollars away from a rural district, that district will feel the hurt.

Every small town can tell a story about some expert who rolls into headlines, grifts the local taxpayers and thought she/he was going to institute sweeping changes, only to fall flat on their face and the community then faced with cleanup. If Alamogordo allows this charter to move forward, 5 years from now, this will be yet another story of woe.

How charters are run, funded, and overseen varies dramatically from state to state, school to school. In Charter Schools at the Crossroads, one of the most comprehensive overviews of the charter movement, Chester Finn, M.A.T.’67, Ed.D.’70, concludes, “The charter track record can best be described as stunningly uneven,” and yet the proponents of the Charter in Alamogordo have little to NO experience in operating Charter schools in New Mexico, yet they expect public support for their grab of your public schools taxpayer dollars.

Alamogordo’s citizens must ask themselves based upon what past charter school experience do we entrust this group to lead Alamogordos educational reform initiatives?

A charter school may be a viable option for Alamogordos students but so to might be a magnet school or a STEM focused institution of excellence within APS.

All options should be debated, considered and evaluated by a large diverse cross-section of Alamogordo stakeholders to include representatives from the tribal lands, Hispanics, African Americans, the LBGTQ Community, economically challenged communities, the challenges and disabled communities, and those gifted and fiscally talented. Until that moment occurs Alamogordo taxpayers should oppose a charter school

Yes to a charter school for Alamogordo? Maybe, with broad public discussion, UPFRONT and open discussion, debate and transparency.

NO to the proposed charter.

Let your voice be heard - no to Alamogordo Charter Sacramento School of Science and Engineering.