Thursday, July 16, 2015 Page 3The Chronicle-News Trinidad, Colorado

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SCHOOLSTRINIDAD STATE

High schoolers check out collegeSix-week on-campus summer program just the ticket for learningBy Greg BoyceTrinidad StateSpecial to The Chronicle-News

Leaving home for college is such a big step, some students drop out and go home in the first semester. They just didn’t know what college would really be like. For de-

cades, Trinidad State has tackled that prob-lem with a live-in summer program aimed at young people who might not even believe college is an option.

About 50 teenagers from southern and western New Mexico and Las Animas

County are in their sixth and final week of the Math Science Upward Bound Pro-gram at Trinidad State. About three dozen of them, who are hundreds of miles from home, are doing the whole college experi-ence, including living in residence halls, and eating cafeteria food. Judy MacLaren, a Trinidad State chemistry professor, has headed the program since 1992. “Kids that come from New Mexico have to do their own laundry, they get homesick, they miss their mom’s cooking, so it truly is, more of an experience away from home for them,” said MacLaren. “For freshman in college that’s the number one (problem), they get homesick and drop out.”

“I was homesick for a while, but now I don’t want to go back,” laughed Daisy Ar-talejo of Anthony, New Mexico. She’ll be a junior in high school in the fall. “I think it has been a good program because it teaches you to be independent—you have your own job, you have your own responsibilities. It gives you an opportunity to see what it’s

like, being independent.” Students are recruited through several

methods: Applications are sent to high school counselors, math and science teach-ers, presentations are done at schools and some come from student recommendations.

Almost all the students are either first generation (meaning neither of their par-ents have a bachelor’s degree), or they meet government mandated income require-ments.

“They do get to meet other kids from a wider area, just like you would in col-lege,” said MacLaren. “We’re very strict with them, which I know doesn’t happen in college, but when you have fifty, 15 to 18 year olds that you’re responsible for, they can’t behave the way they do at home. We have curfews, we have what we call fam-ily groups. There’s a Resident Advisor as-

signed to 8 to ten kids.This summer’s classes include Composi-

tion/Literature, Health, Video Yearbook, Leadership, Test Preparation for the ACT, Science, Math and even a foreign language. This year that’s Navajo. That’s helpful for Myocia Spencer from the Gallup, New Mex-ico area. She grew up on an Indian Reserva-tion. “I understand it, I just can’t speak it,” she said of Navajo. She’ll be a senior in high school in the fall. This is her third summer at Trinidad State. “I never thought of going to college, but after I came here, there’s mul-tiple choices of colleges I want to go to right now. I want to go into forensics, or electri-cal engineering.”

Math Science Upward Bound at Trini-dad State is in year three of a five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant is worth about $359,000 a year.

Photos courtesy of Greg BOyce / Trinidad StateStudents from the Math Science Upward Bound Program at Trinidad State work in a computer lab on campus during shool hours. Daisy Artalejo of Anthony, New mexico, far left, and Myocia Spen-cer from the Gallup, New Mexico area are two of the students who attend the program.

Colorado marijuana tax for schools hits record, exceeds 2014 totalAssociated Press

DENVER — A year after Colorado’s marijuana tax for schools came in far short of its goal, the fund is setting re-cords and has accrued more money in the first five months in 2015 than it did for all of 2014.

Recently released tax data showed the 15 percent excise tax for school construction hit $3.5 million in May, the most recent data available. That brings the 2015 total to $13.7 mil-lion, edging the $13.3 million it raised in all of 2014.

The jump is partly because there are more marijuana stores and partly because shops last year were given a one-time tax-exempt transfer of their medical plants to the rec-reational pot side, The Denver Post reported.

“It sounds very encouraging,” said state senator Pat Steadman, D-Denver.

“Voters wanted the school capital construction program to benefit, and despite some bumps in the road at the begin-ning, it looks like what was intended is coming to fruition.”

There are three types of state taxes on recreational marijuana: the standard 2.9 percent sales tax, a 10 percent special marijuana sales tax and a 15 percent excise tax on wholesale marijuana transfers.

The new pot tax data also showed that recreational mar-ijuana sales in Colorado plateaued in spring 2015. Those re-tail sales hardly fluctuated between March and May, stay-ing between $42.4 and $42.7 million, totaling $42.5 million in May.

May’s medical marijuana sales in Colorado were at

their highest since last October, totaling $32.4 million.No matter what the excise tax produces this year, Colo-

rado schools will get the promised infusion of $40 million. That’s because state lawmakers changed the funding ear-lier this year when they agreed to send voters a revised pot-tax plan to comply with constitutional spending restric-tions.

Colorado voters in November will determine the fate of Proposition BB, which will either refund tens of millions of dollars in marijuana taxes from the recently ended fiscal year to businesses and citizens or allow the state to keep the money. The state has earmarked the money for school construction, law enforcement, substance abuse, preven-tion and youth services. If voters reject Prop BB, nearly $60 million will be refunded to marijuana businesses and pot-shopping customers via a sales tax rate reduction on recreational cannabis.

EDUCATION

Associated Press

ECONOMIC ISSUES

State Fair considers moving from Pueblo due to high costs Associated Press

PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) — The Colorado State Fair could be ending its 146-year run in Pueblo as a legislative committee looks to fix the event’s cash flow problems.

The Denver Post reports that the fair has been losing money and depending on millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for the last 13 years. Auditors told legislators Tuesday that there is no solution if the fair remains at its current location.

Members of the Legislative Audit Committee suggested the fair move from Pueblo to another Colorado community that might bid for it.

The city of Pueblo has cut financial support of the event by two-thirds the last three years. It generates about $29 mil-lion in economic impact to the area.

The fairground lost $3.3 million last year and receives about $2 million in state and local contributions.