Becoming the Low-Cost Leader in Higher Education

According to a recent analysis by the Rio Grande Foundation, Doña Ana Community College (DACC) is New Mexico’s low-cost leader when it comes to higher education. This is certainly praiseworthy and laudable, but it brings up even more questions.

1) What can other institutions of higher ed learn from DACC?
2) How can those institutions maximize student (and taxpayer) value by leveraging the resources of DACC and other low-cost providers:
3) What information can and should the schools share to explain why some are so much more efficient than others?
4) Would students be better off if funding was directed to them in the form of a voucher rather than “trickled down” through the higher ed bureaucracy?

Higher education is just one area of New Mexico budget that is in need of serious reform, but it is a worthwhile place to start. We can take a moment to congratulate DACC for doing something right and hopefully learn what that something (or those somethings) are.