The state’s Higher Education Department is pushing to impose stricter requirements on the Lottery Scholarship to increase student accountability.
Only 14 percent of New Mexico students maintain the Lottery Success Scholarship for four years, and the Higher Education Department Director of Financial Aid, Karen Kennedy, said more stringent requirements could change that statistic.
“We want to make sure access isn’t restricted for any student, but we also want to make sure New Mexico sees successful outcomes,” she said.
Proposed changes include requiring university students to take 15 credit hours per semester instead of 12 and maintain a higher GPA. College preparatory course work and class ranking in high school will also become more important in deciding who is awarded the scholarship. The Higher Education Department is also considering a “means” test based on income requirements.
The recommendations will be introduced before the 2012 Legislative Session, and, if passed, will take effect either July 1, 2013 or 2014.
According to the 2010 report to the Legislative Finance Committee, 50 percent of New Mexico high school graduates require remedial courses, and between 25 percent and 35 percent of graduates lose their Lottery Scholarship after their first semester of college.
New Mexico Senator Michael Sanchez (D-Valencia) proposed the idea of a Lottery Scholarship in 1996, and said he opposes the Higher Education Department’s proposition to place more stringent requirements on the Lottery.
“(We) absolutely will not, will never, (increase requirements)” he said. “They’ve tried in the past and we’ve been able to say no, that’s never going to work. The scholarship is for people who would otherwise not be able to go to school. Just because you aren’t the greatest student in high school doesn’t mean you can’t make it in college, and I’m a prime example of that.”
Sanchez said he thinks the statistics in the Legislative Finance Committee report are inaccurate.
“I think the figures are wrong because they didn’t take into account that some people who lose the lottery scholarship don’t drop out, they continue with school,” Sanchez said. “They just have to pay for it themselves. There are benefits to having the Lottery Scholarship for any amount of time.”
Kennedy said lottery revenues are flat despite steady tuition increases, and Lottery Scholarship funds could be depleted as soon as 2014. Whether legislators are in favor of it, adjustments are needed to ensure the program remains solvent, she said.
Sanchez said the State Legislature isn’t looking at other ways to fund the scholarship.
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“We have to look for other revenue sources,” he said. “That’s the bottom line. Or, if people want to talk about making the Lottery Scholarship stricter, more requirements on it, then I will push it to be a need-based scholarship. I guarantee that’s what I’ll do if they try putting more requirements on it.”
