5 ms·

New Mexico Will Make College Tuition Free for Residents

47 points by webmaven 5y ago

bell-cot 5y ago
Now if they can also penalize NM colleges which fail to slash the cost of textbooks...
- pmags 5y ago
  What makes you think its colleges and universities that set the cost of textbooks?
  - bell-cot 5y ago
    "Set the cost" as in "New Mexico Highlands University told $Huge_Publisher that they have to sell 'Advanced Calculus, 7th Edition', by Epsilon X. McDollars, to NMHU students taking Math 311 for only $25 per copy"? (Vs. $Huge_Publisher's normal price of $175.) Um, no. "Set the cost" as in "NMHU's required textbook for Math 311 will now be 'Advanced Calculus: Second Edition', by David V. Widder" - which is a real book, list price of $22.95, from Dover Books - yeah, that way is darn easy. And when NMHU sticks with that book for a few terms, there will be plenty of used copies around campus, for only $15 or $20.
    - pmags 5y ago
      I get the appeal of classic texts like the Dover math series -- I've got plenty of them on my own bookshelf. But the reality of most fields of study is that a 60+ year old textbook just doesn't cut it in terms of topics covered, advances in the field, or modern pedagogical practice. As a unversity professor myself, I am always seeking out open publishing or less expensive options for my students. The sad reality is that while there are some nice "open publishing" textbooks available, and I try and use these for my own classes whenever appropriate, very few such efforts can match the quality of a professionally edited textbook in terms of breadth of topics covered, quality of illustrations and figures, referencing to the recent literature, etc. I wish it was otherwise, but that's currently the state of affairs in the sub-fields my work touches on (genetics, genomics, computational biology). For senior students and grad students I can usually draw on the primary literature rather than a textbook per se, but that's rough going for most students in their first few years of university.
      - bell-cot 5y ago
        For seniors & grad students, in a fair number of subjects, sadly yes. But for lower-level students, or in many other subjects - things like up-to-date references to the literature are not so important in (say) a senior-level abstract algebra text. Or they can go on a simple "Other Resources for this Course" web page that the Dept. maintains. (Point of amusement - one of my own grad school math texts, first published in 1966, is currently "List price: $175" on Amazon. Admittedly, I studied from a later edition of Rudin. But I suspect it didn't change all that much.)
      - formerkrogeremp 5y ago
        I had a professor similar to you in college, and he was a real life saver for working with us on reducing textbook costs. I really appreciated his and your efforts to provide quality, affordable books and learning materials.
  - textbookbound 5y ago
    > What makes you think its colleges and universities that set the cost of textbooks? Perhaps not set at the University-level, but they likely allow ethically dubious practices that inflate the cost of texts and line the pockets of their teaching staff. Being a university drop-out, I took the opportunity to test the waters at my local technical college for a Cybersecurity program during the lockdown with a free first-year program. For the English course, I was required to purchase a $120 dollar copy of a book authored by $PROFESSOR_1, $PROFESSOR_2, et. al. - this was a small collection of stories NOT written by these professors but simply chosen by them and printed by a firm which provides what one can only describe as kickbacks to these professors. Of course, each year two or three stories are swapped out such that one could never purchase last year's used copy. So are the universities explicitly setting costs? No, but they're full-well not setting standards and practices to reign them in either.
  - aussiegreenie 5y ago
    They can specifiy "Open Source Textbooks" or at least ones without a one-off code for marketing tests.
- m463 5y ago
  hmm... I can't help but think that having the state pay tuition will create something like free-to-play games with in-app purchases.
webmaven 5y ago
https://archive.ph/dikTJ https://archive.ph/dikTJ
sonicggg 5y ago
I'm in favour of post-secondary education being publicly funded, but what does it acomplish at a state level? Even sovereign countries have a problem with brain drain. I assume that this would even be more pronounced with states. I don't think New Mexico 's job market can compete with some other parts of the nation. It would be better if there was a national policy, to keep a level playing field. Otherwise New Mexico is just subsidising someone else's economy.
- textbookbound 5y ago
  > but what does it acomplish at a state level? Presumably, it promotes an educated populace in such a manner that helps grow their economy and tax base. I live in an economically conservative state (South Carolina) and we've long offered a variety of incentives (partial tuition funded via State-run Lottery) as well as some amount of technical college coverage for much-needed positions, e.g. aviation and automotive work. Seeing as Boeing, Volvo, Mercedes, BMW all have production facilities in-state it works well because those taking these courses are staying in-state for work. I'm not a New Mexican (or an Old one, for that matter :p) but I would hope they've some idea of university graduate economic migration such that they feel this will benefit them.
willio58 5y ago
Good. Now all publicly funded universities should be free for the public.
von_lohengramm 5y ago
It's essentially been free for ages due to the state's highly profitable lottery[1]. High school GPA doesn't play any part in this "scholarship" either. It's kind of sad how many people I knew who didn't take advantage of this opportunity when it was available to them. [1]: https://hed.state.nm.us/financial-aid/scholarships/legislative-lottery https://hed.state.nm.us/financial-aid/scholarships/legislati...

47 points by webmaven 5y ago

bell-cot 5y ago

Now if they can also penalize NM colleges which fail to slash the cost of textbooks...

pmags 5y ago
What makes you think its colleges and universities that set the cost of textbooks?
- bell-cot 5y ago
  "Set the cost" as in "New Mexico Highlands University told $Huge_Publisher that they have to sell 'Advanced Calculus, 7th Edition', by Epsilon X. McDollars, to NMHU students taking Math 311 for only $25 per copy"? (Vs. $Huge_Publisher's normal price of $175.) Um, no. "Set the cost" as in "NMHU's required textbook for Math 311 will now be 'Advanced Calculus: Second Edition', by David V. Widder" - which is a real book, list price of $22.95, from Dover Books - yeah, that way is darn easy. And when NMHU sticks with that book for a few terms, there will be plenty of used copies around campus, for only $15 or $20.
  - pmags 5y ago
    I get the appeal of classic texts like the Dover math series -- I've got plenty of them on my own bookshelf. But the reality of most fields of study is that a 60+ year old textbook just doesn't cut it in terms of topics covered, advances in the field, or modern pedagogical practice. As a unversity professor myself, I am always seeking out open publishing or less expensive options for my students. The sad reality is that while there are some nice "open publishing" textbooks available, and I try and use these for my own classes whenever appropriate, very few such efforts can match the quality of a professionally edited textbook in terms of breadth of topics covered, quality of illustrations and figures, referencing to the recent literature, etc. I wish it was otherwise, but that's currently the state of affairs in the sub-fields my work touches on (genetics, genomics, computational biology). For senior students and grad students I can usually draw on the primary literature rather than a textbook per se, but that's rough going for most students in their first few years of university.
    - bell-cot 5y ago
      For seniors & grad students, in a fair number of subjects, sadly yes. But for lower-level students, or in many other subjects - things like up-to-date references to the literature are not so important in (say) a senior-level abstract algebra text. Or they can go on a simple "Other Resources for this Course" web page that the Dept. maintains. (Point of amusement - one of my own grad school math texts, first published in 1966, is currently "List price: $175" on Amazon. Admittedly, I studied from a later edition of Rudin. But I suspect it didn't change all that much.)
    - formerkrogeremp 5y ago
      I had a professor similar to you in college, and he was a real life saver for working with us on reducing textbook costs. I really appreciated his and your efforts to provide quality, affordable books and learning materials.
- textbookbound 5y ago
  > What makes you think its colleges and universities that set the cost of textbooks? Perhaps not set at the University-level, but they likely allow ethically dubious practices that inflate the cost of texts and line the pockets of their teaching staff. Being a university drop-out, I took the opportunity to test the waters at my local technical college for a Cybersecurity program during the lockdown with a free first-year program. For the English course, I was required to purchase a $120 dollar copy of a book authored by $PROFESSOR_1, $PROFESSOR_2, et. al. - this was a small collection of stories NOT written by these professors but simply chosen by them and printed by a firm which provides what one can only describe as kickbacks to these professors. Of course, each year two or three stories are swapped out such that one could never purchase last year's used copy. So are the universities explicitly setting costs? No, but they're full-well not setting standards and practices to reign them in either.
- aussiegreenie 5y ago
  They can specifiy "Open Source Textbooks" or at least ones without a one-off code for marketing tests.
m463 5y ago
hmm... I can't help but think that having the state pay tuition will create something like free-to-play games with in-app purchases.

webmaven 5y ago

https://archive.ph/dikTJ https://archive.ph/dikTJ

sonicggg 5y ago

I'm in favour of post-secondary education being publicly funded, but what does it acomplish at a state level? Even sovereign countries have a problem with brain drain. I assume that this would even be more pronounced with states. I don't think New Mexico 's job market can compete with some other parts of the nation. It would be better if there was a national policy, to keep a level playing field. Otherwise New Mexico is just subsidising someone else's economy.

textbookbound 5y ago
> but what does it acomplish at a state level? Presumably, it promotes an educated populace in such a manner that helps grow their economy and tax base. I live in an economically conservative state (South Carolina) and we've long offered a variety of incentives (partial tuition funded via State-run Lottery) as well as some amount of technical college coverage for much-needed positions, e.g. aviation and automotive work. Seeing as Boeing, Volvo, Mercedes, BMW all have production facilities in-state it works well because those taking these courses are staying in-state for work. I'm not a New Mexican (or an Old one, for that matter :p) but I would hope they've some idea of university graduate economic migration such that they feel this will benefit them.

willio58 5y ago

Good. Now all publicly funded universities should be free for the public.

von_lohengramm 5y ago

It's essentially been free for ages due to the state's highly profitable lottery[1]. High school GPA doesn't play any part in this "scholarship" either. It's kind of sad how many people I knew who didn't take advantage of this opportunity when it was available to them. [1]: https://hed.state.nm.us/financial-aid/scholarships/legislative-lottery https://hed.state.nm.us/financial-aid/scholarships/legislati...