Lottery scholarship woes are front and center as the New Mexico legislative session ramps up.
Associated Students of UNM President Jenna Hagengruber said that currently the lottery is only able to fund about 95 percent of tuition for qualifying students for the scholarship instead of the previous practice of 100 percent funding.
The lottery funds are depleting quickly, she said, and while the Liquor Excise Tax has been able to provide a supplemental $19 million to lottery funds, that source of funding is set to expire at the end of next year.
President Bob Frank said UNM will be going to the legislature “to talk about, ‘how do we solidify legislative funding for the lottery so it doesn’t change?’”
Frank said while the Liquor Excise Tax was extended two years ago, that pillow is now up, and now they have to decide whether they will re-extend that or use some other means to protect the lottery scholarship.
He said Hagengruber has met and coordinated with all other presidents of higher education in the state to try and see if they could find a common agreement on what would be the best way to construct the lottery, and what could be the parameters of such a task.
Hagengruber said students have been promised lottery funding for 100 percent coverage of tuition for in-state New Mexico schools since the bill was written in 1996.
“This is a huge benefit to the New Mexico population and has been able to allow many individuals who wouldn’t be able to afford college to garner an education,” she said. “It is dire that students aren’t cut off from lottery funds now.”
There may not be a single solution to the lottery scholarship and the lack of funding that is currently available to students, she said, but UNM is asking legislators and senators to keep in mind that a solution should not benefit students on a needs- or merit- based basis, but should be accessible to all students.
Jenna said UNM is also urging lawmakers to see that through funding education and putting New Mexico’s students first, the state will have a more educated population.
Hagengruber said this will, in turn, hopefully benefit both the state of New Mexico currently, as well as the economy, by providing young adults who are prepared and ready to enter the workforce.
“We, as students, are the future of not only this state, but also this nation. Investing time, effort and money into students is never a waste, and as ASUNM, we are urging the lawmakers to keep that in mind,” she said. “The more students we can help support receive an education, the more educated and productive our population will become, which can only benefit New Mexico. We are asking to put students first, because putting students first is also putting New Mexico first.”
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Matthew Reisen is the news editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @dailylobo.
