The New Mexico Opportunity Scholarship Act was made into law during a ceremony on the WNMU campus Friday afternoon.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham visited J. Cloyd Miller Library to put a flourish on the signing of Senate Bill 140, which enables any New Mexican who wants to pursue higher education to do so.
At WNMU, more than 125 students have already benefited from the scholarship, and a few of them were in attendance.
The New Mexico Opportunity Scholarship is the only state-funded scholarship program in the country to include both recent high school graduates, returning adult learners, part-time students, career training certifications, associate and bachelor’s degrees, and summer courses.
In addition to covering full tuition and fees at in-state public colleges and universities like WNMU, the scholarship lets students stack federal aid such as Pell Grants, local scholarships, and private scholarships to pay for books, materials, housing, food, transportation, childcare and other college costs.
The scholarship is intended to help New Mexico build capacity in high-need fields like teaching and medicine, and it is the state’s first scholarship program to consider students pursuing career training certificates.
“With the passage of the Opportunity Scholarship Act, we have made history by ensuring New Mexicans have the option to access tuition-free college, whether they are a returning adult learner, a working parent, someone who lost the Lottery Scholarship, or anyone in between,” Higher Education Secretary Stephanie Rodriguez said.
The act also creates a non-reverting fund that will help grow and sustain funding into the future.