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Saturday, January 15, 2011
Martinez's Budget Shuts College Door
By Paul Luna
Chairman, UNM-Valencia Advisory Board
Gov. Susana Martinez's first budget for the state of New Mexico shuts the doors of opportunity for adult students, many of whom are working parents who cannot afford to leave their jobs and families to attend college outside of their communities.
Not every college freshman is an 18-year-old living in a campus dorm following a family tradition of four-year college attendance. The typical community college student is more likely to be a single working mother in her late 20s or early 30s, the first in her family to attend college.
The governor's budget targets remedial classes — the refresher classes for veterans and other returning students who because of family situations, income or work obligations were unable or unready to attend college immediately after high school.
A recent national study from the Working Poor Families Project indicated, "Obtaining a college degree is the surest route out of poverty, but individuals in poverty are much less likely to access and complete college.... Only one out of every nine adults whose parents' family income was in the bottom 20 percent graduate from college by age 40, compared to over half of adults whose parents' income was in the top 20 percent." New Mexico's per capita income is one of the lowest in the nation, 42nd out of 50 states in 2008. Therefore, our students are less likely to have access to higher education.
Where do these adult students and high school students who are not prepared for college go when they want to pursue a degree or train for a career or a better job? According to Martinez's budget, they would go nowhere. Our new governor campaigned on a promise of stimulating economic development. How does eliminating educational opportunities create job growth?
According to a study by the American Council on Education, Hispanics are far less likely to enter and graduate from college than whites. The majority of our Hispanic and Native American students begin their college studies at community colleges in New Mexico. New Mexico ranked 47th in college completion as of 2008. The governor would shut the door on our low-income, minority students.
Finally, Martinez has called for severe cuts for "some dual-credit high school classes," one way for financially-strapped New Mexican families to send their children to college without breaking the family budget. Students who complete one or two years of college credits while in high school can save New Mexico families tens of thousands of dollars in tuition, fees and living expenses by completing those college credits while in high school.
New Mexico needs to keep open the doors of higher education and job training for its citizens, especially during a depressed economy, not shut the doors of opportunity.
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