Commentary: A presentation at the Domenici Conference a few years ago convinced me that the loss of low-skilled jobs to automation will mean we need to re-think our public education model. K-through-12 isn’t going to be enough for the future workforce. We need to start including community colleges and universities in the free public education system.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has proposed a plan to accomplish that by building on the state’s current lottery scholarship program and ensuring that students are receiving all of the federal assistance they are eligible for.
The Opportunity Scholarship would require that students apply for financial aid before being able to receive the scholarship. It is estimated that 35 percent of eligible students in the state fail to enroll for federal assistance because they are intimidated by the bureaucratic process or have immigration concerns.
Helping students navigate that process would seem like a smart and easy investment for the state. The new scholarship would cover what is left for each student after federal grants and the lottery scholarship.
The New Mexico Lottery Scholarship was started in 1996, and for the next 18 years covered the full cost of tuition for New Mexico high school graduates. But since 2014, lottery proceeds have not been sufficient to cover full tuition, and so students now get only a partial scholarship.
Lujan Grisham’s plan builds on that existing program. As with the lottery scholarship, students would have to take a full load of courses and maintain at least a 2.5 GPA. It would be available to all students, regardless of their financial status.
One of the big differences is that the Opportunity Scholarship would not be limited to graduates of New Mexico high schools. It would also be available to adults returning to college who graduated elsewhere.
Lujan Grisham estimates she can do all of this for $25 million to $35 million a year.
The Legislature, which will consider this proposal when it meets in January, should take a sharp pencil to the governor’s numbers on this plan, and all of the many spending plans that are sure to be introduced in the next session.
Many students who were relying on the lottery scholarship could not make up the difference when that fund ran short, and had to give up on their college dream. Commitments made in the boom years when oil and gas money is flowing need to be sustainable during those years when production is slower and prices lower.
Beyond just looking at the numbers, and before pumping millions of new dollars into the state’s higher education system, lawmakers should take a closer look at that entire system.
Does New Mexico need six different four-year universities? Does each university serve a specific need or function beyond just geographic diversity? Do lessons taught in New Mexico high schools align with what is expected of our incoming freshmen? Do degrees earned by university graduates align with what is needed by local employers? Do we have the high-paying jobs needed to keep university graduates in our state, or are we just training a workforce for others?
There also needs to be some way to prevent colleges and universities from seeing the new scholarship as free money and immediately hiking their tuition, knowing that all increases will be covered by the state.
I’m not suggesting that any of these questions are deal-breakers … just things to consider during the discussion.
But I give the governor credit for a bold proposal that could help thousands of New Mexicans to improve their lives while making our state workforce more competitive.
Walter Rubel can be reached at waltrubel@gmail.com