To the Editor:

The state legislature is considering spending a significant amount on technical and vocational education. How can the people of Grant County benefit for this expenditure? New Mexico has 17, two year colleges that specialize in technical and vocational education, but the closest to Silver City is in Las Cruces 100 miles away.

We have WNMU here in Silver City and WNMU does offer some technical and vocation programs granting associate and certificate degrees. The problem is that WNMU charges all of its students the same tuition and fees so that a student taking a vocational program at WNMU needs to pay about $3,400 a semester while a student in Las Cruces taking the same program at DACC pays only about $1,000 a semester. This doesn’t seem fair.

One solution would be for WNMU to charge students in associate and certificate programs less than students in bachelor programs so the associate and certificate students would pay about the same as students in other two year schools in the state. This is probably not workable.

Another solution is for Grant County and perhaps other counties in the Southwest to organize a community college district. This would require votes to approve a district tax. The Dona Ana Community College District tax is 1.25 mills. Once the district is approved it will get state aid just like all the other 2 year schools in the state.

There are two ways the district could be organized: (1) as a branch campus of WNMU under the Board of Regents of WNMU or (2) as an independent community college under its own elected governing board.

With the decline of enrollment at WNMU and since about half of WNMU’s classes are now on line there are plenty of vacant classroom space that could be used by a community college. Also, the community could take over the associate and certificate programs as well as the adult education programs at WNMU, leaving the administration of WNMU to concentrate on bachelor and master degree programs.

New Mexico now has a lieutenant Governor interested in education and interested in Grant County and Southwest New Mexico now is the time to do something.

Alfred Milligan
Silver City, NM