Our Mission
Basic Assistance to Students In the Community (BASIC) is a charitable 501(c)(3) organization committed to empowering youth and adults in the Borrego Springs community to pursue educational opportunities and achievement by providing grants, scholarships and programs that will help these students reach their potential and realize their dreams.
Our Community
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Borrego Springs, California, is a small desert community of 3,500 permanent residents located over the mountains east of San Diego. The community is completely surrounded by the 650,000-acre Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, so isolated that there are no stoplights and there is no residential postal delivery. The population consists mainly of two groups: seasonal and permanent. The first group is comprised mostly of “snowbird” retirees who live here during the winter months. The permanent residents whose children and grandchildren attend our schools are Latinos. They provide the backbone of Borrego’s service industries — hospitality, landscaping, and housekeeping. This group is hardworking, living with basic necessities, and committed to seeing that their children have opportunities to succeed, both academically and professionally. |
Our ConcernStudents in the Borrego Springs schools are struggling and all too often failing academically. The State of California annually scores the academic performance of its public schools. In 2023 Borrego Springs Unified School District ranked the lowest in all school districts in San Diego County. More than 80% of our 2nd and 3rd graders are not reading at grade level, potentially setting them up for a lifetime of disappointments.
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Administrators and teachers struggle to close this learning gap, but the challenges are great. Nearly 90% of students in the Borrego Springs Unified School District are still learning English. Many are living in poverty.
