(The Center Square) – The New Mexico Higher Education Department wants an additional $12.05 million for its Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
HED released its final budget recommendation, requesting $197 million. It wants to increase spending on scholarship and loan repayment programs, food, mental and behavioral health services, dual credit programs, and tribal education, among other priorities.
“This year’s budget builds upon the success New Mexico is seeing in higher education and ensures that students not only have access to college and career training opportunities but that they have the support they need to reach graduation day. By sustaining the groundbreaking Opportunity Scholarship, our record-breaking loan repayment programs, and expanding additional supports for students, New Mexico will lead the nation not only in higher education access but in student success,” Acting Higher Education Secretary Patricia Trujillo, Ph.D. said.
HED wants $146 million for the New Mexico Opportunity Scholarship, the state’s tuition-free college program.
“Gov. Lujan Grisham and HED announced earlier this year that since the enactment of the Opportunity Scholarship Act in 2022, New Mexico has enrolled an additional 6,700 students, a nearly 7% enrollment increase over the last two years,” the department said. “Since 2022, the scholarship has benefitted over 36,000 students each year pursuing certificates, associate degrees, and bachelor’s degrees and public and tribal colleges and universities statewide.”
HED also wants $20 million for the Teacher Loan Repayment Program and $19.3 million for the Health Professional Loan Repayment Program.
“Both programs require multi-year service commitments as a condition of loan forgiveness and have broken records over the past two years for the number of working professionals served,” a release said.
It also wants $969,100 for graduate student scholarships, and $1 million is for the Minority Doctoral Loan Repayment Program.
HED argues that these two programs, “support historically underrepresented groups teaching in the fields of engineering, science, mathematics, and other academic disciplines at colleges and universities in New Mexico.”
Also, HED requested $500,000 to create an anti-hazing division “to protect students from hazing incidents and increase state oversight of college athletics programs,” the release said.
The agency wants a 15% spending increase for agency operations so it can hire eight more full-time staff members in areas like fiscal oversight, academic policy, and community outreach.
Other budget recommendations HED made include the following, according to the release:
$295,604,755 to support new construction, renovation, and infrastructure needs statewide $11,972,395 to support demolition of facilities $7.45 million for Adult Education and Literacy Programs $3.7 million for RISE NM – New Mexico’s longitudinal data system $4 million for the Dual Credit Program $1 million for the College Basic Needs Project $1 million for the College Mental and Behavioral Health Initiative $2.25 million for Tribal Education Technical Assistance Centers $350,000 for test vouchers and instructional materials for adult education programs
The request for increased spending comes as the state projects slowing revenue growth in Fiscal Year 2025, as The Center Square previously reported. The New Mexico General Fund will grow by just 2.2% in the next Fiscal Year, according to the state’s Taxation and Revenue Department.
The forecast projects that the General Fund’s recurring revenues will exceed $12.7 billion for Fiscal Year 2024 and over $13 billion for Fiscal Year 2025.
Earlier this year, HED recommended that 27 public and tribal college and university campuses, three special schools, and the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center get funding for 42 capital improvement, renovation, infrastructure, and demolition projects totaling $307.5 million, spending that nearly equals all the tuition the schools receive.
