'College is too damn expensive': New Mexico governor signs free tuition into law

[FailureToCommunicate]

'College is too damn expensive': New Mexico governor signs free college tuition into law

https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/new-mexico/2022/03/04/new-mexico-free-college-tuition-bill-signed-michelle-lujan-grisham-wnmu/9376293002/

SILVER CITY – "College is too damn expensive," Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a speech minutes before signing a bill aiming to extend free college tuition to most New Mexico residents.

The signing took place in a ceremony in Silver City, at Western New Mexico University's Miller Library, with WNMU President Joseph Shepard and state Higher Education Secretary Stephanie Rodriguez looking on and flanked by students.

"New Mexico is making history in setting a national example of how states can break beyond barriers for students everywhere," Rodriguez said in remarks at the ceremony.

With an initial appropriation of $75 million, the law covers tuition and fees for undergraduate students at two- or four-year higher education institutions, including tribal colleges, in the state. Students are required to enroll in at least six and no more than 18 credit hours and maintain a 2.5 grade-point average. Eligible students may pursue career training certificates as well as associate's or bachelor's degrees.

[marked50]

1. Yee-Haw New Mexico

[Magoo48]

2. Good news

[Sympthsical]

3. Uh oh.

"Reeeeeeeee, freee stufffffffff!!!!!!!" I can hear the argle bargling from here. Why can't those damn kids go into a lifetime of debt for that there book learnin!

Anyway. Awesome job, New Mexico. California should be leading the way on this, but alas our system is populated by people preoccupied with money. I'll take New Mexico for now. Gotta start somewhere.

[FailureToCommunicate]

7. This paragraph on the size of their student debt really jumped out...

"Lujan Grisham decried a system that relies on heavy student loans to finance education, remarking that debt from such loans, estimated at about $7.7 billion among New Mexicans alone, rivals the state's operating budget (which came in at over $8.4 billion for fiscal year 2023)."

[Sympthsical]

9. And people don't think there's anything wrong with that system

It's like a bad Carl Sandburg poem. "Pile debt high . . ."

(See? It cost me $4,582 to learn that poem).

And yet the problem - the real problem! - is the 18 year olds and not the adults who engineered the system.

The whole thing is an obscenity that should've been fixed ages ago. But given contemporary attitudes even in our own party by a nice chunk of people who themselves never had to experience or be weighed down by that system, I'm not supremely hopeful this will change.

I suspect we will have to wait until the grass has done its work.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Where's the money coming from?

{snip}

The signing caps a legislative victory for Lujan Grisham in an election year where she is seeking a second term as governor.

She first proposed making New Mexico tuition free in 2019, her first year in office. The proposal met with questions from university leaders and lawmakers about how to implement and fund a program in a state that depends heavily on the volatile oil and gas sector for revenue. Some expressed concern such a program could inflate tuition and fees.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic reached New Mexico, the state Legislature funded a scholarship program for community college tuition, which has been awarded to over 10,000 students, the Higher Education Department reported, despite being trimmed in a 2021 special session after oil and gas revenues plummeted during the pandemic.

Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, [e-mail] or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.

[FailureToCommunicate]

5. Seems okay to me if funding is coming mostly from oil and gas fees, no?

[Lucky Luciano]

10. Their concern is dependence on a volatile commodity.

If the commodity crashes, the source of funding dries up. This, for example, hurt Venezuela a lot after the 2008 crash.

[mountain grammy]

6. Good for New Mexico

back in the olden days, many state colleges and universities were free or low cost to residents.. California was a shining example. Then they elcted Ronald Reagan as governor.

[onetexan]

8. K&R - this w help set the norm for other states to follow

[Cozmo]

11. MLG is up for reelection, fingers crossed, she is GREAT!

[iluvtennis]

12. Nice! Now go take adavantage of it New Mexico students. n/t

[FailureToCommunicate]

13. Yes! A niece lives in Gallup, and we're hoping this might encourage her to go.

[Red Pest]

14. This is how it should be...again

When I was an undergraduate student at UCLA (1972 graduate), there was no tuition for California residents, only incidental fees ($89/quarter, if I recall correctly). The same was true for all public colleges & universities in California. Ronny Rayguns (then the Governor) tried to force the the state to charge tuition, by cutting the higher Ed budget. By 1975, tuition began to be charged. Fortunately for me, as a graduate student my tuition was paid by being a teaching assistant, a research assistant or from a research fellowship (depending upon the year).

This was the struggle between two philosophies: whether higher education is a public good or a private good. That struggle continues. While individuals do clearly benefit from receiving education, society very clearly benefits with increases in wealth, health, and the well-being of all. Way to go New Mexico!