More Data on Higher Ed Bloat

The Rio Grande Foundation has been doing a great deal of work on the need for higher education reform in New Mexico. Our policy paper and Channel 13 KRQE interview are just two of the most recent efforts, not to mention several opinion pieces that have appeared statewide.

The topic came up in a recent Winthrop Quigley interview with former Gov. Garrey Carruthers in the Albuquerque Journal’s business section. In the interview, Carruthers noted that:

In 2008 New Mexico employed 7.3 people per thousand population to administer and provide support services in the state-run institutions of higher learning. Arizona had 2.8 employees per thousand population, Colorado had 4.6, and Texas had 3.3.

Carruthers goes on to question the reasons behind this out-sized bureaucracy such as the presence of too many schools in New Mexico, but the reality is that without additional transparency and either coordination of majors or genuine market-based competition for funds, nothing will change. The data don’t lie, however, hopefully the Legislature tackles this important issue in the 2011 session.