{"id":15261,"date":"2025-12-12T23:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T06:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-college-graduates-rank-high-for-economic-mobility\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:46:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:46:48","slug":"new-mexico-college-graduates-rank-high-for-economic-mobility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-college-graduates-rank-high-for-economic-mobility\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico college graduates rank high for economic mobility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"San
San Juan College graduates participate in commencement ceremonies on May 17 at San Juan College in Farmington. (Brad Ryan\/Special to Tri-City Record)<\/span>Brad Ryan\/Special to Tri-City Record<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

New Mexico college graduates rank among the most likely in the nation to achieve economic security and upward mobility, according to a new study measuring education-to-employment outcomes across all states.<\/p>\n

The 2025 State Opportunity Index, produced by the Strada Education Foundation, reports that about 70% of New Mexico college graduates achieve a positive return on investment over 10 years.<\/p>\n

The ROI metric reflects graduates who earn more than workers with only a high school diploma and whose 10-year earnings exceed the cost of their degree.<\/p>\n

New Mexico is one of only 14 states where more than 70% of graduates achieve a positive ROI, alongside Alaska, Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Washington. Nationally, states range from 53% to 82% on this measure.<\/p>\n

\"New
New Mexico Higher Education Department Secretary, Stephanie Rodriguez, said the state\u2019s priority is making college accessible without burdening students with debt. (Courtesy New Mexici Higher Education Department)<\/span>Matt Blasing<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The state also ranks in the top \u201cLeading\u201d category for affordability at public two-year colleges and shows strong affordability at four-year schools.<\/p>\n

The study reports that New Mexico performs well in access, affordability and alignment of postsecondary pathways, reflecting the state\u2019s ongoing efforts to promote the Opportunity Scholarship, the nation\u2019s first state program to offer tuition-free college to all New Mexicans regardless of income.<\/p>\n

Higher Education Secretary Stephanie Rodriguez said the state\u2019s priority is making college accessible without burdening students with debt. She added that the goal includes ensuring students have the resources to succeed once they choose a path.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are gratified when the metrics reflect that we\u2019re heading in the right direction, but we want to continue showing that New Mexico can and will lead the way in high-quality, accessible higher education with family-sustaining wages right here at home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

out nationally with strong graduate earnings and accessible college options<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1240,1222,155,799,28,1241,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-aztec","tag-bloomfield","tag-education","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-kirtland","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15261"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19564,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15261\/revisions\/19564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15261"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}