Alex McCausland

Jun 17 2019

Commentary: New Mexico Must Address Child Wellbeing

Alex McCausland2024-04-02T13:57:43-06:00Kids Count News Coverage, News Coverage|

KRWG FM--Those at New Mexico Voices for Children, an advocacy group that runs the state’s KIDS COUNT program, also praised legislation to increase the state’s Working Families Tax Credit, which they said benefits more than 200,000 children every year. It is not surprising that the data from 2017 reflected in this year’s report would be so poor. That was the tail end of an eight-year term by Gov. Martinez filled with budget deficits and constant fights over education reform.

Jun 17 2019

Advocates for NM Families See Chance to Improve Kids’ Lives

Alex McCausland2024-04-02T13:59:41-06:00Kids Count News Coverage, News Coverage|

Public News Service--Amber Wallin, deputy director of New Mexico Voices for Children, says it will take sustained investment to undo the damage from a decade of under-funding of programs that serve families."We're seeing big disparities for our children of color,” she states. “And this is really problematic, especially in New Mexico, because 75% of our kids are children of color. But we also think we've made a lot of progress this legislative session in trying to create some opportunities for our kids."

Jun 17 2019

New Mexico’s 2019 KIDS COUNT profile

Alex McCausland2021-08-30T13:11:18-06:00Kids Count Publications, Local Data, Publications|

State Data Sheet New Mexico ranks 50th in the nation in child well-being for the third time since 2013. This state profile shows how our children are faring on the 16 indicators of child well-being used in the national KIDS COUNT rankings. (State-level data on the 16 indicators of child well-being.)

Jun 17 2019

KIDS COUNT: NM Ranks 50th in Child Well-being for Third Time

Alex McCausland2022-04-05T16:08:09-06:00Press Releases|

“It’s disappointing, but not terribly surprising to see New Mexico ranked at the bottom again, given the last ten years,” said James Jimenez, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, which runs the state’s KIDS COUNT program. “It is going to take sustained investment to undo the damage from a decade of underfunding all of our child-serving programs and services like health care, child care and K-12 education. We started making progress in 2019, but clearly much more needs to be done.”

Jun 07 2019

Think big and keep investing in pre-K

Alex McCausland2024-04-02T14:00:12-06:00Blog Posts, Education Blog, Education News Coverage, News Coverage|

Santa Fe New Mexican--New Mexico offers pre-K services in both public schools and private early care facilities. While the two types are fairly comparable, the salaries are not. Pre-K teachers at public schools are paid the same salary as K-12 teachers, have the same employee benefits and are required to have specific education credentials. That matters, because the level of pre-K quality is largely determined by teacher education.

Jun 04 2019

Advancing equity in New Mexico: College affordability

Alex McCausland2023-02-15T11:36:41-07:00Blog Posts, Economic Security Blog, Education Blog, Racial and Ethnic Equity Blog|

Higher education is one of the most powerful engines of social mobility. Our economy and families thrive, and our future is brighter, when we make adequate, strategic investments in our public universities and colleges and ensure that they are accessible for all youth. But New Mexico has underfunded its public higher education institutions for years, and tuition has increased as a result. New Mexicans of color are among those who are hit the hardest by these budget choices.

May 21 2019

Advancing equity in New Mexico: Criminal and juvenile justice

Alex McCausland2023-02-15T11:37:21-07:00Blog Posts, Human Rights/Civic Participation Blog, Racial and Ethnic Equity Blog|

Communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by incarceration even though studies show they commit crimes at similar rates to whites. African Americans in New Mexico are more than six times likelier to be incarcerated as whites and Hispanics are about two times likelier. Women who are mothers are also disproportionately represented. The overall inequity in our justice system has dire consequences for the health and well-being of our families.

May 16 2019

New Mexico Legislators Unite Over Methane Pollution

Alex McCausland2024-04-02T14:05:16-06:00Economic Security News Coverage, Health News Coverage, News Coverage|

Public News Service--He adds that jobs designed to capture wasted methane also would enhance the state's economy. "We've seen, for example, in states like Colorado that have enacted commonsense methane-capture regulations, that the industry can adapt and it can be part of growing the economy," he points out.

May 14 2019

Advancing Equity in New Mexico: Tax Policy

Alex McCausland2019-07-31T15:18:05-06:00Blog Posts, Economic Security Blog, Racial and Ethnic Equity Blog, Tax and Budget Blog|

The first installment in our series on policies passed during the 2019 legislative session that will improve equity in New Mexico, this blog looks at how tax policies can help close income and wealth disparities that fall along racial lines. Makes sense -- since tax policies helped create those disparities in the first place.

May 14 2019

Advancing equity in New Mexico: An introduction

Alex McCausland2023-02-15T11:37:49-07:00Blog Posts, Racial and Ethnic Equity Blog|

Every child deserves to live in a society where they have an equal opportunity to participate, prosper, and reach their full potential in life – a society where neither race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, gender, disability, nor skin color can determine their opportunities and life outcomes. There are many ways to address equity in public policy. This blog is the introduction to a series where we focus on the outcomes of the 2019 legislative session and how they influenced equity, in policy areas such as taxes and spending, criminal and juvenile justice, college affordability, social determinants of health, family economic security, and more.

About Alex McCausland