Dec. 14 – Higher education officials say New Mexico’s two scholarship programs are the reason state colleges are experiencing enrollment growth while numbers are shrinking at colleges and universities across the country.
Leaders of the state’s public colleges and universities used that growth last week to defend the Department of Higher Education’s proposed $1.4 billion budget for fiscal year 2026, which was presented to the Legislative Finance Committee on Wednesday.
The budget proposal is an increase of $186.5 million – almost 6% – over the current budget year. Much of the increase will cover basic needs and academic support for students, wage increases for workers and efforts to build the workforce in high-demand sectors such as health care, education, construction and social work.
“Since 2021, our institutions have grown 9.7%,” said Joseph Shepard, president of Western New Mexico University and chairman of the Council of University Presidents. “To put that in perspective, the rest of the country is seeing enrollment declines, while New Mexico is seeing an increase.”
College student enrollment had been recovering from the effects of the nationwide coronavirus pandemic — with 2023 freshman enrollment up 2.1% over the previous year — but that changed this fall when the number Freshman enrollment fell 5% nationally, according to studies from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
Shepard cited the success of the New Mexico Opportunity Scholarship and Lottery Scholarship in expanding college access in New Mexico.
New Mexico’s higher education budget proposal calls for maintaining the Opportunity Scholarship’s funding level at the current $146 million and credits the scholarship with increasing retention and graduation rates for recipients by 8%.
A 2023 Legislative Finance Committee review found that while the scholarship programs had increased student access to college, readiness remained low and schools underperformed given their higher funding – an increase of 59% since 2014, despite a decline of 17% in enrollment in the same study. time.
New Mexico’s retention and graduation rates still lag about 10% behind national averages, according to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.
The Legislative Finance Committee report notes that New Mexico ranks 49th in the nation in the number of students graduating within six years — despite ranking second in the nation in spending per student on higher education in the fiscal year 2023.
This raised questions from Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, who chairs the committee.
“If we fund you at the second-highest level in the U.S. per student, and we’re ranked 49th,” Muñoz said, “then that’s on you. That’s on you, presidents, if you fail to succeed in what needs to be done. And I don’t. know how we are going to bring that back into balance.”
Cabinet Secretary for Higher Education Stephanie Rodriguez refuted the senator’s numbers, noting that U.S. News and World Report rank the state’s higher education system 21st. She attributed that ranking to support from the Legislature and “the leaders in this room.”
“When it comes to higher education, we are really moving mountains to help our students move forward,” she said.
Her office’s budget request includes several one-time appropriations aimed at pathways into occupations where workers are in high demand. Past them:
* $25 million for a loan repayment program for health care professionals.
* $25 million for a student grant to the University of New Mexico School of Medicine to provide scholarships and stipends to students in the state.
* $10 million for a teacher loan repayment program.
Rodriguez said a 2022 funding initiative that invested $10 million in the state’s nursing programs increased enrollment by 437 students. “We still need 2,300 nurses in the health care workforce alone,” she said. We need 800 teachers to prepare education. And in terms of social work, we’re looking at the thousands.”
Other one-time credits include campus investments such as deferred maintenance and cybersecurity.
An increase of $2.25 million in recurring funding is proposed for the Tribal Education Technical Assistance Centers, established through legislation in 2023, to support tribal education and career pathways, and an annual increase of $3 million dollars proposed for the state’s continuing education programs, with an additional $2 million. for adult literacy programs.
The budget also calls for $8 million for a salary increase of at least 4% across the board due to an increase in the cost of living and insurance premiums.
“We have seen a significant increase in basic needs in recent years,” said Becky Rowley, president of Santa Fe Community College and president of the New Mexico Independent Community Colleges. She said rising costs for basic necessities have forced institutions to start initiatives such as food banks for their faculty.
Shepard said the salary increase would also help reduce the poaching of faculty from research institutions by private and out-of-state schools.
