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The State University of New Mexico, in the southern United States. Public domain

The governor of New Mexico announced Wednesday, September 18, a vast plan, unpublished in the United States, to make tuition fees free in its public universities.

With our correspondent in San Francisco, Éric de Salve

In a country where a third of the under-30s are still paying off a student loan , the announcement does not go unnoticed. The governor of New Mexico wants to make higher education accessible to all. To do this, it simply proposes to make tuition fees free in the 29 public universities of this state.

Today I'm thrilled to announce a huge development for New Mexico higher education - we're going to make tuition-free college for New Mexico students. #NewMexicoOpportunity pic.twitter.com/mRTsnKevIA

Michelle Lujan Grisham (@GovMLG) September 18, 2019

Its plan, called "A rocket for higher education", would be reserved for residents of New Mexico, potentially 55,000 students each year, regardless of the income of their homes. " That would mean more registrations, more exam success, more economic growth and a better-trained workforce for New Mexico, " said the Democratic governor.

A plan that has yet to be validated

Michelle Lujan Grisham figures the cost of his plan between 25 and 35 million dollars per year (between 22.6 and 31.7 million euros), financed thanks to the revenue from shale oil extraction in the Permian basin ( in southeastern New Mexico). But this project still needs to be validated by the local Parliament with a Democratic majority.

Since 2017, about twenty other states have launched programs to reduce university fees, but all are conditioned and none is so ambitious. In the United States, two out of three students graduate with an average debt of $ 30,000. The easing of this burden is one of the themes of the campaign for the Democratic primary.

► To read again: Dear students, student debt: has knowledge become a commodity ?