Editorial: College Predictors Will Save Lotto Scholarships

In 1995, then-Gov. Gary Johnson signed bipartisan legislation creating the New Mexico Lottery Authority. What made that legislation, and the subsequent 12 years of legalized gambling, more palatable to many New Mexicans is the program’s mandated mission of raising money for higher education.

It’s time for the Legislature to face fiscal reality and finally focus that law so it goes beyond just handing out college tuition to all comers and instead awards it to students who have a decent shot at graduating.

Currently the program guarantees eight semesters of full tuition for recent N.M. high school grads who maintain a 2.5 grade-point average in a state college or university.

The retooling is necessary because the New Mexico Lottery Success Scholarship fund is on the edge of insolvency — the Legislative Finance Committee is projecting it will be more than $5 million short in two short years.

Declining ticket sales, skyrocketing tuition and increasing student applications — about 75,300 students have gotten a lotto scholarship — have made it a fiscal victim of its popularity with the looming potential of becoming an empty promise.

And that has the Legislature flipping a coin with two unpopular sides:

1. Either give the scholarship to fewer students, or

2. Find more money.

A 2010 LFC report wisely pushed option No. 1, linking qualifications for the scholarships with predictors for recipients actually graduating in nine semesters. Those included increasing the minimum course load from 12 to 15 hours, setting stricter eligibility requirements for research institutions and four-year colleges compared to two year colleges, setting high school performance standards (GPA, college preparation or class rank), requiring remedial coursework be taken at lower-cost institutions, and excluding remedial courses from the required course load.

Option No. 2 is a non-starter, considering the state-sponsored gambling was sold to the public as a way to get kids through college and especially in this tight economy. LFC members appear reluctant to even go there — a good thing.

Chairman Sen. John Arthur Smith says using general state funds is not an option, and vice chairman Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela says “we’re trying to balance the budget. We’re looking at not trying to divert recurring revenue from the general fund at this point in time.”

On the lottery’s 10-year anniversary, one of the original sponsors of the enabling legislation, Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, said “we want (the scholarship program) to where it stays something you can rely on.”

If that’s going to happen, the 2013 Legislature will need to make adjustments to honor that sentiment, as well as the one about legalized gambling putting students through (not just into) college.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.