The New Mexico Lottery Success Scholarship will likely receive record-breaking funds in the coming years, expanding access to students.
On July 1, the New Mexico Lottery Authority announced a record $148 million in profits for the fiscal year ending June 30 - $11 million more than last year. Exactly how much will go to the scholarship will not be announced until late July, but it will exceed last year's $33.1 million in education funds, the group stated.
UNM is the largest recipient of lottery scholarship funding in the state.
New Mexico Commission on Higher Education spokeswoman Janet Wise said news of the increased funding is certain to strengthen the scholarship.
"The lottery's success is good for students and the publicity will hopefully bring even more students to the program in the future," she said.
Wise said the timing of the lottery's funding increase improves the academic outlook for a new batch of graduating high school seniors.
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"I expect the news will spread, and it won't be long until their friends are also looking into enrolling," she said.
New Mexico Lottery Media Director Lance Ross said it is too early to tell if the new education funds will cover all eligible incoming college freshmen. According to the New Mexico Lottery Web site, there have been funding shortages.
"Even though the lottery has been returning consistently higher amounts of revenue to the state for the past several years, the demand has outpaced the growth," the Web site states.
The scholarship may fall short because of increased tuition rates, Ross said.
"There are institutions that look at the lottery as a blank check, and they feel they can raise tuition because they know in-state tuition will be covered 100 percent by the lottery scholarship for the eligible students," he said.
GED recipients and New Mexico high school graduates with a 3.0 GPA or higher are eligible for the Lottery Success Scholarship if they register for 12 credit hours in a public New Mexico university or college the semester after high school. The scholarship grants awardees full tuition, excluding fees, for eight consecutive semesters if they maintain a 2.5 GPA or higher. The New Mexico Lottery is the sole source of funding for the scholarship.
Kathleen O'Keefe, interim director of the UNM Financial Aid Office, said it remains unclear what effect the funding increase will have on the scholarship, but various competing proposals are before the New Mexico Legislature and will be voted on during the next legislative session in February. One such proposal would activate the Lottery Success Scholarship during the student's first semester.
As the policy stands, eligible students must complete a trial period during their first college semester, which the UNM Bridge to Success Program funds. Students must attain a 2.5 grade point average or higher while taking 12 credit hours to move from the Bridge to Success to the full scholarship.
Ross said an average 25 percent of all lottery revenues go toward the scholarship. Between 1997 and 2000, 60 percent of the lottery's profits were allocated for school construction and 40 percent went toward funding the scholarship, he said. Thereafter, all lottery profits went to the scholarship.
According to the New Mexico Commission on Higher Education, 27,000 students have benefited from the scholarship since its creation in 1996. Since then, the lottery has generated $214 million for education in New Mexico, according to the commission's Web site.
