Governor Bill Richardson told an audience of UNM faculty, staff and students on Thursday that higher education needs a representative at the table when decisions are made at the state’s highest levels. “Higher Education is not discussed when the funding opportunities come up,” he said.
UNM President Louis Caldera shared with the governor UNM’s dire need for a fairer share of capital outlay funds, Richardson said. “UNM is not doing well,” he agreed, adding funding should be equitable and not based on who has the best lobbyist.
Creating a Secretary of Higher Education would ensure accountability at the top but retain local control with boards of regents as governing bodies.
Richardson would also form a Department of Higher Education to coordinate resources across the state’s 26 colleges and universities.
He commended UNM School of Law Dean Suellyn Scarnecchia for efforts to boost the number of Native American attorneys in the state.
In October, the UNM law school, with the New Mexico Tribal Higher Education Commission, hosted the Tribal Summit on Educating American Indian Attorneys. Leaders from New Mexico tribes and state government discussed how to increase the number of tribal lawyers serving Indian communities.
“Our goal is to create a strategy to improve our ability to identify prospective lawyers and to work better with other institutions to prepare these students for law school,” Scarnecchia said. “The governor is very supportive of our effort to increase the number of Native American attorneys practicing in New Mexico. We know that the practicing bar needs to fully reflect and serve the needs of all communities in New Mexico, including tribal communities.”
A law school student in attendance said a bill introduced by Sen. Leonard Tsosie related to the Lottery Scholarships would ensure better benefits for tribal students and colleges. Richardson pledged his support.
A member of UNM’s adjunct faculty called on the governor to improve salaries and benefits for adjunct instructors who make up nearly 50 percent of UNM faculty.
“Is it that high now?” the governor asked. “That’s why we need someone at the cabinet level [to advocate for higher education],” he said.
The governor’s plan “Prepare for Success” starts with expanded access to the Lottery Scholarship Program, which has a large surplus.
Richardson’s initiatives related to the scholarship include:
• Add a two-year wait out period. Many students – as many as 50 percent – take a break after high school.
• Give a second chance to students who fail to earn the scholarship their first semester. If they stay in school and raise their cumulative GPA to a 2.5, students get another chance the following semester.
• New Mexicans ineligible for the lottery, primarily those who returned to school several years after graduating from high school, will become eligible for the lottery scholarship - if they enroll in a four-year college immediately after earning an Associates degree with a 2.5 GPA from a two-year college.
• Make New Mexico Native American students eligible for the lottery scholarship if they attend an accredited New Mexico tribal college, such as the Institute for American Indian Arts, Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute or Dine College.
• Give students a flat dollar amount through the Lottery Success Scholarship, rather than paying tuition directly. By depositing the money into an account at the university - under the student’s name - this plan will allow families to be eligible to take the federal tuition tax credit. You can’t do that when you pay a student’s tuition directly. This will keep up to $6 million in New Mexico that families will not have to pay in federal taxes.
The proposals do not include funds for graduate students. A UNM graduate student requested that the surplus benefit that student population, too. The governor’s staff responded that there is a need for graduate fellowships.
Governor Richardson also announced plans to create a new scholarship fund. He would set aside money – with a goal of $250 million over several years – to create a New Mexico Student Aid Trust Fund that is available for future New Mexicans.
Other initiatives resulting from his Task Force on Higher Education include:
• Better prepare students for college by beefing up outreach to middle and high school students - with more mentoring and tutoring. The governor recommends using interest earnings from the Lottery Scholarship fund surplus to expand these outreach programs statewide.
• Increase graduation rates by linking state funding for higher education to graduation rates and not simply enrollment. The plan is to target low-income students by giving colleges incentives to do more to make sure they graduate.
• Provide more opportunities for students to stay in school by creating a system that allows them to more easily transfer credits between New Mexico universities. Use a statewide system to identify courses for freshman and sophomore courses using the same course numbers and titles.
Governor Richardson also wants to build on current efforts to improve K-12 education in the public schools. “While I am making a substantial commitment to higher education, we must continue to shore up our public schools so our students are prepared for success before they reach college,” Richardson said in a news release.
He announced five specific initiatives that Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia will pursue:
• Create a New Mexico Teaching Corps to train teachers to work in failing schools. The rigorous program, modeled after a similar effort in Chicago, will train and move teachers - within one year - into classrooms at corrective-action schools, where they’ll commit to stay for at least five years. He committed $900,000 dollars to start the program.
• Tackle student health and obesity. Richardson has outlined plans to expand school-based health centers, and reintroduce physical education programs in every school. At UNM he announced plans to introduce “Kids Health First,” designed to phase out junk food items served in schools. He also wants to expand the School Breakfast program.
• Support charter schools by giving organizers the opportunity to apply for charters directly with the Public Education Department, not just local school boards. The Governor is also proposing $1 million for stimulus funds, $450,000 in technical assistance for charter schools, as well as other ideas to strengthen the Charter Schools Act.
• Allow Home School Students to participate in athletics. Secretary Garcia is working with the New Mexico Activities Association to provide opportunities for home-schooled students to participate in athletics in public schools. If the details can’t work out eligibility issues with the NMAA, the Governor vowed to pursue a legislative fix.
• Improve teacher quality, especially in rural New Mexico, by providing recruitment grants - freeing up money for some school districts to offer signing bonuses to teachers. The governor also wants to offer work-study stipends for high school graduates to encourage them to major in education in college.
Contact: Laurie Mellas-Ramirez, 277-5915
Posted by kwentworth at October 22, 2004 03:32 PM