Searchlight NM--“Have we made a difference in 30 years?” James Jimenez asked that question on the 30th anniversary of the founding of New Mexico Voices For Children. As the group’s executive director, he was grappling with how an agency formed to advocate for the state’s children should “celebrate” when the state is ranked near last in the nation in child well-being.
KNME TV--On New Mexico in Focus correspondent Megan Kamerick sits down with Bill Jordan from New Mexico Voices for Children to discuss the latest KIDS COUNT Data Book, released this month to coincide with the start of the legislative session. The report shows improvements in some areas, but our state is still at the bottom of the nation in nearly all measures of child and family well-being.
Santa Fe New Mexican--Quality Counts comes just days after the personal finance website WalletHub issued a report calling New Mexico the worst state to raise a family and the nonprofit New Mexico Voices for Children released its annual Kids Count Data Book, showing a rise in poverty among the state’s children — to 29 percent — and a decline in the number of kids with health insurance.
Las Cruces Sun-News--Quality of life is low for children in New Mexico, according to a new report. The 2017 New Mexico Kids Count Data Book found more children are living in poverty, are without health insurance and are living in single-parent households than a year ago. The report from the New Mexico Voices for Children ranked New Mexico as the second-worst state in child well-being, saying 29 percent of New Mexico children live in poverty.
Santa Fe New Mexican--“It’s a real mixed bag,” James Jimenez, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, said of the report. “The encouraging thing is that some of the indicators are moving in the right direction, but clearly poverty continues to be a major concern … it can compromise a child’s long-term ability to thrive.”
SANTA FE, NM—Several indicators of child well-being are showing improvement in New Mexico, but a persistently high rate of children living in poverty continues to cast a pall over the state. That is the overall conclusion in the 2017 New Mexico KIDS COUNT Data Book, released today by New Mexico Voices for Children to coincide with the start of the legislative session.
NM KIDS COUNT Data Book New Mexico is at a crossroads. At the federal level we're seeing unpredictability in how child-serving programs are funded and at the state level we're poised to elect a new governor. This annual publication reports the latest data on child well-being in New Mexico to help us choose the path forward. (State-, county-, tribal-, and school district-level data on indicators of child well-being)
New Mexico In Depth--We all want a prosperous state, but prosperity requires investments. You can’t grow a garden without good soil, sunlight, water, and some hard work. Same with a state—you can’t have prosperity without resources, infrastructure, and a skilled workforce. But instead of following an investment strategy to prosperity, New Mexico has tried to cut its way to prosperity.
Santa Fe New Mexican--“It does provide a sort of snapshot, but I would also say it’s a bit of an incomplete snapshot because it doesn’t really show the resilience of New Mexico families and that how in really tough economic times, New Mexico families have been working hard to do well by their families,” said Jimenez, a former secretary of the state Department of Finance and Administration. “That’s sort of a piece that’s missing from it.”
Santa Fe New Mexican--“These two programs are not only critical for the well-being of New Mexico’s children and hardworking families, but they are also important to the state’s economy,” said James Jimenez, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, a liberal advocacy group.