Dec. 14 -- Leaders of the state's public colleges and universities joined Higher Education Cabinet Secretary Stephanie Rodriguez last week in proposing a $1.4 billion budget for the agency in fiscal year 2026, with a focus on expanding college access and readiness, and to bolster career pathways in high demand.
The proposal, presented to the Legislative Finance Committee on Wednesday, includes a $186.5 million increase -- almost 6% -- from the current fiscal year.
Much of the increase includes appropriations for basic need and academic supports for students, employee pay hikes and efforts to build the workforce in high-demand sectors like health care, education, construction and social work.
Officials touted enrollment growth at New Mexico schools in a time when higher education institutions nationwide are seeing shrinking numbers.
"Since 2021, our institutions have grown by 9.7%," said Joseph Shepard, president of Western New Mexico University and chair of the Council of University Presidents. "To put that into perspective: The rest of the nation is seeing declines in enrollment while New Mexico is seeing increases."
Shepard cited the success of the New Mexico Opportunity Scholarship and Lottery Scholarship in expanding access to college.
College enrollment had been on a trend to bounce back from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic nationwide -- with 2023's freshman enrollment numbers up 2.1% from the previous year -- but that changed this fall when freshman enrollment was reported as down 5% nationally, according to studies from National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
New Mexico's higher education budget proposal calls for maintaining the Opportunity Scholarship's funding levels at the current $146 million and credits the scholarship for increasing retention and graduation rates for recipients by 8%.
A Legislative Finance Committee evaluation in 2023 found that while the scholarship programs had increased students' access to college, readiness remained low and schools were underperforming, given their increased funding -- a 59% rise since 2014, despite a 17% drop in enrollment in the same time.
New Mexico's college retention and graduation rates continue to lag behind national averages by about 10%, according to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.
The Legislative Finance Committee report cites New Mexico's rank as 49th in the nation for the rate of students who graduate within six years -- despite the state's rank as second in the nation for per-student spending on higher education in fiscal year 2023.
This raised questions from Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, who chairs the committee.
"When we fund you at the second highest level of the U.S. per student, and we're 49th," Muñoz said, "that's on you guys. That's on you presidents in not succeeding in what needs to happen. And I don't know how we're going to rebalance that."
Rodriguez countered the senator's numbers.
"I'm really proud to say because of you all and your support through the Opportunity Scholarship, the Trust Fund and then the leaders in this room, we've actually moved from 47th and higher in higher education to 21st in the nation in higher education," she said, citing a U.S. News and World Report ranking.
"So in public ed," she added, "we see these negative numbers, but as far as higher education, we are really moving mountains to move our students forward."
Her agency's budget request includes several one-time appropriations targeting pathways toward professions in which workers are in demand. Along them:
* $25 million for a health professional loan repayment program.
* $25 million for a student endowment at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine to provide scholarships and stipends for in-state students.
* $10 million for a teacher loan repayment program.
Rodriguez said a nursing expansion funding initiative in 2022, which invested $10 million in the state's nursing programs, increased enrollment by 437 students. "In the health profession workforce alone," she said, "we still need 2,300 nurses. In educator prep, we need 800 teachers. And as far as social work, we're looking at the thousands."
Other one-time appropriations would include campus investments like deferred maintenance and cybersecurity.
A $2.25 million increase in recurring funding is proposed for Tribal Education Technical Assistance Centers, established through legislation in 2023, to support tribal education and career pathways, and a $3 million annual increase is proposed for the state's continuing education programs, with an additional $2 million for adult literacy programs.
The budget also requests $8 million for a minimum 4% salary increase across the board due to an increase in the cost of living and insurance premiums.
"We've seen a sharp increase in basic needs over the last couple of years," said Becky Rowley, president of Santa Fe Community College and chair of the New Mexico Independent Community Colleges. She said rising costs for basic needs have have forced institutions to start initiatives like food pantries for their faculty.
Shepard said the salary increase also would help mitigate the poaching of faculty from research institutions by private and out-of-state schools.