OPINION: Talk of the Town

Converting Alcatraz to a prison will be costly

President Trump’s latest brainstorm is to repurpose Alcatraz back into a prison. The cost of this venture will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. First, millions will be spent on engineering and architectural studies to examine the feasibility and design the work necessary to bring the prison to safe standards. Then there will be hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the rehabilitation and expansion of the prison. And, of course, there will be the loss of millions in profits as the National Parks Service will no longer be offering tours.

The federal government is operating at an annual deficit of over $1 trillion. One of the few ways with which the government actually makes money to cut into that deficit is by providing tourist visits to Alcatraz Island and Prison.

The Bureau of Prisons doesn’t have enough staff to operate the federal prisons it currently supervises. The country is facing economic headwinds, tariffs, wars on several continents and numerous other challenges. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars to rehab and reopen a prison closed decades ago because of its huge operational costs is not only an inefficient and inappropriate use of our tax dollars, it is a waste of time, energy and leadership when so many other challenges confront us.

Arthur Flicker

Albuquerque

Incentives may up school participation

There are a number of socio-economic and other factors responsible for the poor student performance ratings and high absenteeism rates in the recent Albuquerque Public Schools report card, but certainly one of the most influential is parent involvement. Not surprisingly, child absenteeism and performance improve with the encouragement and engagement of a parent. In light of New Mexico’s dismal national school ratings, dramatic solutions are needed to reverse course.

How then, to engage parents?

In the spirit of using social engineering to effect positive change, one thought is cash incentives. Something like this was tried in Mexico in the late 1990’s, and recent surveys show that the positive effects of this PROGRESA program are still apparent even after 20+ years.

How APS would implement such an approach is for the experts to determine, but it could look something like this: Each school-day evening parents log in to an app and collect or accrue say $10 using something like Venmo if their child attends school that day and they acknowledge any messages from the school or teacher. With parents more likely to have a smartphone than a bank account nowadays, the immediacy and convenience provide a strong psychological incentive. This approach may sound unreasonably expensive, but it could first be tested at a struggling primary school, and if promising, then selectively implemented in and tailored to additional schools.

At about $1,800 ($10 x 180 school days), the yearly cost per child is only 5-6% of the total yearly APS expenditure of about $34,000 per student, and is likely to have a much greater effect on student outcomes than an equal outlay of money on any other program or effort. Radical as this idea may be, new and bold ideas are needed to change the status quo.

Mahlon Wilson

White Rock

APS keeps its parents well-informed

I am an APS graduate and have one child who graduated from APS in 2023, and another who will graduate in 2027. I read with interest the editorial on Sunday, “Accountability report card shows little bang for buck.” While I do agree with many of the points that were made, I would like to offer some missing information regarding how the schools communicate with parents.

Obviously, parental involvement is a huge hurdle to overcome when trying to improve overall student outcomes and attendance. However, I do not believe that lack of communication is the issue. At least at my students’ high school, Volcano Vista, I do not see how there could possibly be any more communication. The administration sends out a detailed newsletter once per month. When the newsletter goes out, we also get a phone call to notify us to check our email. Additionally, we receive phone calls and/or emails on an almost weekly basis informing us of what is happening at school, new initiatives to promote attendance and reduce tardiness, and other reminders.

When there are issues with individual students, teachers will call and email parents to foster a resolution. I have also participated in many surveys asking how the district and school can better communicate with us. If parents are not informed, that is on them for not checking their email or voicemail. Furthermore, anytime we attend a conference or school event, we are asked to sign in either digitally or on paper so that the school can track parent involvement. As you said, parent involvement is not an issue that APS can solve on it’s own. But they are making a huge effort in communication, which should be noted.

Shanna Jarrett

Albuquerque