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Sharon Kayne is NM Voices for Children's Communications Director.
Nov 30 2024

Let’s Use Childcare Assistance to Lift the Workers Out of Poverty Too

2024-12-02T09:53:29-07:00Blog Posts, Economic Security Blog, Economic Security News Coverage, Education Blog, Education News Coverage, News Coverage|

El Semanario--While it’s great to know that the expansion of universal child care has such a dramatic effect on lowering poverty in New Mexico for the children and families who receive the program, there is one significant way in which the CA program falls short: wages for child care and other early care and education (ECE) workers remain unacceptably low. If we can use our CA program to lift kids and families out of poverty, why don’t we use it to lift the people who provide that care out of poverty as well?

Nov 25 2024

‘Not only draconian… immoral’: NM legislators, advocates talk Trump deportation plans

2024-11-26T12:41:39-07:00Economic Security News Coverage, News Coverage, Racial and Ethnic Equity News Coverage|

NM Political Report--Chavero cited the report “Essential but Excluded” that was completed during the pandemic by New Mexico Voices for Children and other advocacy groups. “We have a robust immigrants’ rights movement in New Mexico,” Chavero said. “Bigger and stronger than we were eight years ago during the first Trump administration.”

Nov 24 2024

Head Start could be threatened under Trump

2024-11-25T13:20:13-07:00Economic Security News Coverage, Education News Coverage, News Coverage|

NM Political Report--Jacob Vigil, deputy policy director for New Mexico Voices for Children, told NM Political Report that Head Start is “crucial” to enabling many women in New Mexico to stay in the workforce. “It’s one of the most effective anti-poverty programs for the most vulnerable kids in our country. Head Start continues to be a huge part of the rural childcare system,” Vigil said.

Nov 22 2024

House speaker, advocates plot pushback on Trump deportation plans

2024-11-25T13:25:33-07:00Economic Security News Coverage, News Coverage, Racial and Ethnic Equity News Coverage, Tax and Budget News Coverage|

Santa Fe New Mexican--“New Mexico is home to an estimated 60,000 undocumented immigrants,” said Zulema Chavero, citizenship coordinator for Somos Un Pueblo Unido. She said they “pay more than $67.7 million annually in state and local taxes,” citing a 2020 report from New Mexico Voices for Children.

Nov 20 2024

Child poverty measures tell two stories in New Mexico

2024-11-21T11:32:37-07:00Economic Security News Coverage, News Coverage, Tax and Budget News Coverage|

Santa Fe New Mexican--“Far too many families are living in poverty, when we look at the [official poverty measure],” Voices for Children research and policy analyst Emily Wildau said. “But the [official poverty measure] doesn’t actually show us the also very real impact of those programs that do lift many kids and families out of poverty.”

Nov 20 2024

Report: NM Child Poverty is Below National Average in New Measurement

2024-11-19T14:16:42-07:00Press Releases|

New Mexico’s child poverty rate is either the highest in the nation or better than the national average – depending on which poverty measurement is used. Both poverty rates come from the U.S. Census Bureau, but take very different factors into account. In order for state lawmakers to make informed decisions about public policies affecting children, they must understand the factors that influence these poverty measurements.

Oct 07 2024

Experts ‘cautiously optimistic’ about New Mexico’s child poverty rate continuing to decrease

2024-10-07T12:00:14-06:00Economic Security News Coverage, News Coverage, Tax and Budget News Coverage|

Source NM--“When you look at the supplemental poverty measure, it’s actually measuring the impact of a lot of really strong anti-poverty programs like our tax credits and SNAP programs, and even school lunches are included in that measure. And so it kind of gives us a better sense of basically what a household has in resources,” said Emily Wildau, Senior Research & Policy Analyst/KIDS COUNT Coordinator for New Mexico Voices for Children.

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