Bill Jordan, senior policy advisor for New Mexico Voices for Children, brought up education funding that had been proportionately cut since the recession of last decade. “We no longer fully fund afterschool programs,” Jordan said. “We’ve really balanced the budget on the back of our kids.”
"HB 29, named Stevie’s Law in honor of murdered Albuquerque bartender Steven Gerecke, cleared its first committee on a 4-3 party line vote. Gerecke was shot five times and killed in his driveway, police say while he was trying to stop a group of 'mobbing' teens."
"Once upon a time, in a cafe in Ramallah, or somewhere in the West Bank, I was trying to explain to some young fellow where it was that I was from in the United States. Mexico? NEW Mexico? Never heard of this. Where was that? I drew a map. Even I can draw a map of the Southwest and western Plains. Kansas, New Mexico, etc., how tough is that?"
"The annual Kids Count data book released today shows New Mexico with the highest childhood poverty rate in the country. The state has a long way to go in order to make improvements, and some business leaders have advice on where to start."
It’s ironic that the Legislature opened the same day that the annual Kids Count Survey released figures showing New Mexico at the bottom of the rankings when it comes to the rate of children living in poverty. The condition of the state’s children is our most pressing issue.
New Mexico is now worst in the nation in the percentage of children living in poverty, according to the Kids Count data book for 2015, which is released each year on the first day of the legislative session by the children and families advocacy organization New Mexico Voices for Children.
New Mexico has the highest rate of child poverty in the United States, according to a new study by New Mexico Voices for Children, an Albuquerque-based advocacy group.
The annual KIDS COUNT report is out this morning. There is some improvement, though it's still a grim picture for children in New Mexico. Action 7 News reporter Sasha Lenninger has more on what's in the report.
Veronica Garcia, executive director of the advocacy group New Mexico Voices for Children, said research shows early childhood education programs benefit the economy in the long term. She also noted that the state regularly ranks near the bottom on child well-being.
Early childhood education and care move children out of poverty “as they transition into adulthood because children in these programs have better educational, intellectual and social outcomes,” said New Mexico Voices for Children Executive Director Veronica C. Garcia.