New Mexico colleges get a D: It costs almost twice the national median to complete a 4-year program
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From the Albuquerque Journal today (June 22):
New Mexico’s post-secondary institutions won’t be making the dean’s list.
We’re talking Ds and Fs here, according to a report released this week by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Institute for a Competitive Workforce, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce affiliate.
The report grades the country’s two-year and four-year public institutions, naming New Mexico, where there are 19 and six respectively, among the worst.The U.S. Chamber of Commerce in a news release called the findings “sobering” and is calling on lawmakers, educators and the business community to reform higher ed in the United States.
The state’s colleges combined to get an F on transparency and, perhaps most disturbing for taxpayers, a D for efficiency and cost-effectiveness. From the report:
New Mexico receives low grades in this area, with four- year state and local funding per completion ($82,653) almost double the national median of $41,198, ranking in the bottom five states. For two-year institutions, both cost per completion ($67,621) and state and local funding per completion ($61,433) rank in the bottom third of all states.
The report comes as there has been more calls to make higher education in New Mexico more effective. Last week, an audit was released slamming the Higher Education Department for lapses going back years. Click here to read that story from the New Mexico Watchdog.
As for the national report from the Institute for a Competitive Workforce, things aren’t so great nationally, either.
Although the report singled out Florida, Texas and Minnesota for progress, it says 33 states spend more than $50,000 to produce a credential at a two-year college, cites completion rates in four-year schools hovering at just 50 percent and criticizes states that have “not developed the means to measure the quality of their programs” (just 22 states have the ability to track the success of graduates once they enter the labor force and make those data public).
You can read the entire report by clicking here.
Posted under Capitol Report.
Tags: Albuquerque Journal, Institute for a Competitive Workforce, New Mexico Higher Education Department, New Mexico Watchdog
4:02 pm on June 23rd, 2012
It is sad but true. But the motives of the Chamber of Commerce in formulating the report are questionable, as they would like public institutions to go away and be replaced by private schools that charge even more.
10:26 am on July 2nd, 2012
There are serious problems in the higher education system in NM, as well as many other states.
It would be better to look seriously at the causes of the problems and possible solutions, than to say the reporters have an agenda. Maybe they do, but is their data inaccurate? Do other reports contradict their conclusions?
Frankly I don’t think the higher education system in NM or most other states will be reformed, because the problems are systemic, and not related to weak programs and instruction as much as institutional corruption and politics. And who would fix it? The regents or the administrators, or their allies in the state? They won’t reform or fire themselves, and no governor will pull that weed out by the roots, even for the sake of planting cash crops.