New Mexico Announces Plan for Free College for State Residents

New York Times ^ | Septemberr 18, 2019 | Simon Romero and Dana Goldstein

[karpov]

ALBUQUERQUE — In one of the boldest state-led efforts to expand access to higher education, New Mexico is unveiling a plan on Wednesday to make tuition at its public colleges and universities free for all state residents, regardless of family income.

The move comes as many American families grapple with the rising cost of higher education and as discussions about free public college gain momentum in state legislatures and on the presidential debate stage. Nearly half of the states, including New York, Oregon and Tennessee, have guaranteed free two- or four-year public college to some students. But the New Mexico proposal goes further, promising four years of tuition even to students whose families can afford to pay the sticker price.

The program, which is expected to be formally announced by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Wednesday and still requires legislative approval, would apply to all 29 of the state’s two- and four-year public institutions. Long one of the poorest states in the country, New Mexico plans to use climbing revenues from oil production to pay for much of the costs.

Some education experts, presidential candidates and policymakers consider universal free college to be a squandering of scarce public dollars, which might be better spent offering more support to the neediest students.

But others say college costs have become too overwhelming and hail the many drives toward free tuition.

“I think we’re at a watershed moment,” said Caitlin Zaloom, a cultural anthropologist at New York University who has researched the impact of college costs on families. “It used to be that a high school degree could allow a young adult to enter into the middle class. We are no longer in that situation. We don’t ask people to pay for fifth grade ...”

[Larry Lucido]

“New Mexico plans to use climbing revenues from oil production”

Um, yeah. About that....

*******

“Bill would freeze fracking permits during impact study(NM Environuts find way to pluck Golden Goose)”

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3725553/posts

[refermech]

It’s great! Finally I get something for all the tens of thousands of property taxes I’ve been paying. And I have two kids ready to go to college.

[Flaming Conservative]

Texas has no income tax, so...

[redcatcherb412]

NM guvner is very busy choking out the mining, oil and gas and fracking businesses in her state. Wonder what wellspring of money she foresees to pay for it? One of the poorest states and tax hikes won’t make it, hardly any taxpayers left, just entitlement spenders. I assume she sees a great influx of federal school grant money heading her way.

[Flaming Conservative]

Section 505 of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) states, “an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State (or a political subdivision) for any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit (in no less an amount, duration, and scope) without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.”

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Wow. There’s a law that’s being routinely ignored!

[Lurker]

Laws are for Republicans.

L

[oldbrowser]

When they say free education for all, I hear big Raises for all educators and administrators.
With more students we will need more teachers. To attract more teachers we will have to raise salaries and benefits.

[bgill]

But Texas allows for 10% hike in property tax every year. Do you get a 10% pay raise to keep up with it?

[BelleAl]

It’s “free” here in Georgia as long as you have and maintain a GPA over 3-3.2 (it’s changed over the years). It’s called the Hope Scholarship and the lottery pays for it. I have a child who attended Georgia Tech for 4 years and we didn’t pay a dime of tuition. Our only costs were books, fees and room and board.

[Svartalfiar]

New Mexico is unveiling a plan on Wednesday to make tuition at its public colleges and universities free for all state residents, regardless of family income.

And how do they plan on limiting attendance? Are illegals eligible for this? You establish NM residence just by officially moving there, so what are they gonna do when thousands of kids move to NM to get free college? How are they gonna pay for all that? How are the schools gonna handle the huge influx of students?

[oldbrowser]

Great we will educate our kids so they can move to another state that has jobs.

[tbw2]

Free-college experiment (in Tennessee) proves it isn’t the magic bullet Democrats promise
https://www.wnd.com/2019/12/tennessees-free-college-experiment-proves-isnt-magic-bullet-dems-promise/