Kids Count Blog – New Mexico Voices for Children

Jul 24 2018

Ruling in K-12 funding lawsuit is movement in right direction

Web Admin 2018-07-30T12:32:05+00:00 Blog Posts, Education and Early Learning/Care, Education Blog, Kids Count Blog|

Given the many challenges faced by our children, New Mexico should be making whatever investments are necessary to ensure that every child has the opportunity to thrive and achieve success. Instead, over the last decade New Mexico has made some of the deepest cuts to K-12 education in the country. While some funding was restored during the 2018 legislative session, we are still far behind where we should be on a per-student, inflation-adjusted basis.

Oct 10 2017

Democracy and lots of money are at stake for New Mexico in the upcoming census

Amber Wallin 2018-04-03T12:39:04+00:00 Blog Posts, Economic Security Blog, Human Rights/Civic Participation Blog, Kids Count Blog, Tax and Budget Blog|

When it comes to the census, it pays to be counted. The next big census is less than three years away, and a lot is at stake for New Mexico. Besides being used to determine voting districts, data from the 2020 census will translate to almost $3,000 coming into the state per person, per year for the next decade.

Jul 12 2017

That women have options is not the problem (stupid)

Sharon Kayne 2018-06-14T18:17:37+00:00 Blog Posts, Health Blog, Kids Count Blog|

Diana was nervous as she spoke to the nearly 400 people gathered at our 5^th annual KIDS COUNT Conference. As part of the panel discussion on women’s economic security and child well-being, Diana shared her frustration when, after a decade of working in the early education field and rising to the level of assistant director, she was still earning minimum wage. Her only raises, she said, came from changes in minimum wage laws. But this wasn’t the part of her story that I found most powerful. What really stuck with me was when she told us about having to become a single parent after surviving a domestic violence attack.

Jul 07 2016

Budget cuts put our KIDS COUNT gains in child health at risk

Bill Jordan 2018-06-14T20:11:35+00:00 Blog Posts, Health Blog, Kids Count Blog|

It's always gratifying when we can link a good outcome directly to a specific public policy--as we can in this case. We can also often predict a poor outcome when a bad decision is made. If we're smart, we'll use that knowledge to make better decisions. In this case, however, some lawmakers insisted on making a bad decision anyway.

Jul 04 2016

Initiatives to help young kids have provided major benefits

Veronica C. Garcia, Ed.D 2018-06-14T20:14:44+00:00 Blog Posts, Education Blog, Education News Coverage, Kids Count Blog, Kids Count News Coverage, News Coverage|

At our recent Kids Count Conference, I asked the room of nearly 400 attendees to raise their hands if they had ever spent money on activities such as music lessons, team sports, preschool or a tutor for a child or grandchild. Then I asked if any of them would characterize that spending as “throwing money at the problem.”

Jun 22 2016

New Mexico doesn’t have to stay at 49th for child well-being, but moving up will take effort

Amber Wallin 2018-06-14T20:25:31+00:00 Blog Posts, Economic Security Blog, Kids Count Blog|

Every child deserves access to the opportunities that will help them succeed. But in New Mexico--which ranks next-to-last in the nation for child well-being--too many families lack the resources we all depend upon to raise strong, healthy children. While our high rate of child poverty may seem like an insurmountable problem, it is one we can effectively address. It will take a coordinated effort and--yes--an investment of public resources, but the end result would benefit the state as a whole.

Jul 23 2015

New Mexico is 49th in child well-being once again: What will it take to make change?

Amber Wallin 2018-06-16T23:41:30+00:00 Blog Posts, Economic Security Blog, Kids Count Blog|

Another year… another ranking at the bottom of the barrel. New Mexico has ranked among the worst states in which to be a child for so long that it hardly seems like news anymore. In the 25-plus years that the Annie E. Casey Foundation has been publishing the KIDS COUNT Data Book, we’ve never ranked above 40^th. Most years, we’ve ranked in the bottom five, but we can and we must do better by our kids.

Apr 21 2015

Measuring the benefits of anti-poverty programs

Savanna Duran 2018-04-03T12:39:31+00:00 Blog Posts, Economic Security Blog, Kids Count Blog|

While the official poverty level can tell us how many low-income families and children are eligible for anti-poverty programs, it cannot tell us how many are lifted out of poverty by those same programs.

Jul 22 2014

We’re 49th! A stroke of luck or the result of positive change?

Chris Hollis 2018-04-03T12:39:34+00:00 Blog Posts, Economic Security Blog, Education Blog, Kids Count Blog|

The 2014 national KIDS COUNT ranking of states in child well-being just came out. There was a lot of uproar last year when, for the first time ever, New Mexico was ranked dead last—a position that had always been reserved for Mississippi. This year, Mississippi is back in 50^th and we are ranked 49^th. That’s good news, surely, but we have to ask ourselves … is it just a statistical fluke? Or, could our state possibly be starting to make progress in improving children’s lives? And, if this is so, can we sustain this movement?

Apr 22 2014

Our changing—and highly vulnerable—future workforce

Chris Hollis 2018-04-03T12:39:37+00:00 Blog Posts, Education Blog, Kids Count Blog, Racial and Ethnic Equity Blog|

When the national KIDS COUNT Race for Results: Building a Path to Opportunity for All Children report was released earlier this month it was as if the proverbial other shoe had dropped. The first shoe that fell was New Mexico being ranked dead last in the nation in terms of child well-being. Now, Race for Results presents us with a first-ever, state-level index of racial/ethnic equity for children that shows New Mexico is also failing to provide equitable opportunities for ALL of our children to succeed at key developmental stages of life.