The weeds growing from cracks in a wall at Orchard Mesa Middle School should say it all. We need maintenance in our schools. Every building in District 51 has deficiencies stemming from $200 million in budget cuts over the last decade.

If we don’t pass the $118.5 million bond measure to fund repairs, a new OMMS, classroom technology and two gyms, deferred maintenance costs are only going to grow over time, eating into resources to improve classroom instruction in the coming years.

Nobody is riding to our rescue. We’re in this alone. The state’s budget challenges nearly guarantee that our per-pupil funding will remain near the bottom of districts statewide. A state grant program might cover one-third of the cost of one building, but it considers a community’s support for bond issues and mill-levy overrides. So, failure to support the measures on the ballot hurt us in more ways than one. We lose today and tomorrow.

Read more at The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.