New Mexico Governor Unveils Sweeping Free-Tuition Proposal, as Some Question Who Will Benefit Most

New Mexico residents could receive up to four years of free college tuition, regardless of family income, under a proposal unveiled on Wednesday by the state’s Democratic governor. The proposal — among the most sweeping free-tuition plans yet offered by a state — joins a crowded field of plans aimed at making college affordable.

Like others that have emerged over the past few years, the plan is generating intense debate over the most efficient and equitable ways to guarantee that everyone has access to a college education.

The governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, released a statement saying the program would help 55,000 New Mexicans. One of the nation’s poorest states, New Mexico saw higher-education spending cut by more than 30 percent per student from 2008 to 2018, according to state education officials. The proposal would cost about $25 million to $35 million per year, and would be partly covered by the state’s rising oil revenues, the governor’s office said.

The plan, which requires approval and funding by the Democratic-controlled Legislature to take effect, would allow in-state students to receive free tuition and fees at any of New Mexico’s 29 public two- and four-year colleges, beginning next fall. Students would have to maintain a 2.5 grade-point average to remain eligible.

Recent graduates of high schools and high-school-equivalency programs could receive four years of free tuition at any public institution. Adults who had been out of school for a while would get two years of free community-college tuition. If approved, the plan would make New Mexico the 21st state to cover two years of tuition at community colleges, the governor’s announcement said.

“This program is an absolute game-changer for New Mexico,” Lujan Grisham wrote. “Higher education in this state, a victim of the recession, has been starved in recent years. We are pivoting to a robust reinvestment in higher learning — specifically and directly in our students.”

In the short term, she said, the program will increase college enrollments and success rates. “In the long run, we’ll see improved economic growth, improved outcomes for New Mexican workers and families and parents, a better-trained and better-compensated work force.” Students would be eligible regardless of their immigration status.

Tuition-Free or Debt-Free

With so many colleges, states, and presidential candidates promoting the idea of free tuition today, it’s easy to get confused about what such plans actually cover and who benefits.

Seventeen states and 350 localities across 44 states have enacted some kind of free-college program, according to a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

New York’s Excelsior Scholarship, drafted by the state’s Democratic governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, offers free tuition at public two- and four-year colleges for students with annual family incomes up to $125,000, but it comes with lots of strings attached. For instance, students must attend full time and remain in the state for four years after graduating. The New Mexico program has no such restrictions.

Most free-tuition plans offered by states, as well as by individual colleges and universities, have income caps to ensure that taxpayer money does not benefit students who can afford to pay for college. But as the nation’s tuition-debt level has soared to more than $1.5 trillion, so too has the push for a more-comprehensive approach to reining in costs.

Among the Democratic presidential candidates, both Sen. Elizabeth A. Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, would make every public college tuition free. Joseph R. Biden Jr., the former vice president, would limit the benefit to students attending community colleges.

Tuition-free doesn’t necessarily mean debt-free, however. Even under New Mexico’s comparatively generous proposed program, students would still have to pay for housing, meals, books, and other costs associated with college.

The program would pay for any tuition and fees that aren’t already covered by federal grants or the New Mexico Lottery Scholarship. The lottery scholarship usually leaves an unpaid gap of between 25 percent and 40 percent of tuition, the governor said.

‘A Terrible Idea’

Wesley R. Whistle, a senior adviser with New America’s education-policy program, argued that a last-dollar approach — which fills in only where other grants and scholarships leave off — isn’t the best way to help the neediest students. He prefers first-dollar approaches, like Indiana’s 21st Century Scholarship Program. They pay scholarships on top of any other aid students might get. That means students can use Pell Grants and other scholarships to cover tuition and fees, which Whistle said account for just under half of all college costs. The additional state money can go toward living and other expenses so students can graduate debt-free, or close to it.

Whistle also said that if a state is spending money to cover tuition but not enough to enhance academic and advising programs, graduation rates will continue to lag. “If you’re sending students to schools that are under-resourced, you aren’t setting them up for success,” he said.

Brian Rosenberg, president of Macalester College, called free tuition “a terrible idea” in an opinion essay published last week by The Chronicle. He argued that the main beneficiaries of such programs are students who are relatively well off. A sharp increase in applications as a result of the programs could make colleges more selective, he wrote, hurting the disadvantaged students the policies are supposed to help. Graduation rates at less-selective colleges could decline even further, he argued.

He’s among those who argue that a more-equitable approach would be to increase the size of the federal Pell Grant, available for students whose annual family income is under $50,000. But the Pell’s purchasing power has been eroded by inflation.

Even if last-dollar free-college programs offer more limited financial benefits to some low-income students, the message they send — that college is attainable and valuable — is worth their cost, according to Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of higher-education policy and sociology at Temple University, and Michelle Miller-Adams, a professor of political science at Grand Valley State University. They wrote, in another opinion piece in The Chronicle, that programs that benefit all students are more likely to attract the political support they need to succeed.

Katherine Mangan writes about community colleges, completion efforts, and job training, as well as other topics in daily news. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMangan, or email her at katherine.mangan@chronicle.com.