Higher education is a cornerstone of our state's future.

Michelle Lujan Grisham, a voice of vision and guardianship, proclaimed: “Higher education is a cornerstone of our state’s future.” These words, though simple, carry the weight of civilizations. For a cornerstone is not merely a stone, but the foundation upon which all else is built. If the cornerstone is weak, the structure falters. If it is strong, the edifice stands firm for generations. So it is with education: it anchors the destiny of a people, shaping not only their prosperity but their wisdom, their justice, and their very identity.

From the earliest ages, societies have known that to teach the young is to plant seeds for tomorrow’s harvest. The libraries of Alexandria were not amassed for vanity, but to serve as the treasury of a civilization’s future. The universities of the Middle Ages, born from monasteries, became the bedrock upon which modern nations rose. Always, where higher learning flourished, the people advanced. Where it was neglected, decline followed like a shadow.

Consider the story of the Morrill Land-Grant Acts in the United States during the nineteenth century. These laws gave birth to institutions of higher education that were rooted in the soil of the people, training farmers, engineers, and builders for a growing nation. Out of those schools came the innovators who spanned rivers with steel, harnessed the power of electricity, and tilled the land with new wisdom. Without such foresight, the nation’s future would have been stunted, but with it, the country entered an age of progress and strength.

So too do Grisham’s words call upon us to see higher education not as a luxury, but as the sacred cornerstone of our collective tomorrow. It is not only about the training of minds for work, but about the awakening of souls to knowledge, to curiosity, to the courage of asking questions and seeking truth. A society that reveres learning builds fortresses against ignorance, prejudice, and stagnation. A society that neglects it builds castles of sand, soon washed away by the tides of time.

The meaning is clear: the future of a state, of a nation, rests not in its wealth of gold or abundance of weapons, but in the wisdom of its people. Wealth can be stolen, power can be lost, but the cultivated mind endures, adapting, creating, and rebuilding. A people invested in higher education is a people that prepares not only for survival but for greatness.

The lesson is thus twofold. First, we must as a people guard and strengthen the institutions of learning, for they are the forges in which tomorrow’s leaders, healers, and builders are made. Second, we must kindle in every home a reverence for education, so that the cornerstone is not only in the schools but in the hearts of the citizens themselves. Parents must encourage, communities must support, and leaders must provide, for without collective devotion, the foundation cannot stand.

Practical action lies before us like an open path. Support schools and universities not only with words but with deeds. Mentor the young, and show them that knowledge is the key to their future. Demand that leaders protect and expand access to higher education, for every mind awakened is another stone added to the fortress of tomorrow. Encourage curiosity, nurture creativity, and hold up those who teach, for they are the masons of the cornerstone.

Thus, let it be remembered and passed on: higher education is the cornerstone, not of a building but of a destiny. To neglect it is to invite collapse; to strengthen it is to ensure that generations yet unborn will walk upon a firm foundation. And when the foundation is strong, the future, like a temple of light, will rise unshakable against the storms of time.