Mar 24 2024

While depressing, data on child well-being has helped prompt great changes

2024-03-25T10:49:26-06:00Economic Security News Coverage, Education News Coverage, Health News Coverage, Kids Count News Coverage, News Coverage, Tax and Budget News Coverage|

Albuquerque Journal--The civil rights leader James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” In other words, we can’t solve a problem if we refuse to look at it. Looking helps us know the extent of the problem. The column “An optimist’s guide to depressing data” takes the “New Mexico KIDS COUNT Data Book” to task for citing bad-news data about child well-being. We understand. We, too, find it demoralizing that New Mexico has the highest rate of child poverty in the nation.

Jan 22 2024

Kids Count Data Book Focuses on Racial Equity

2024-01-23T15:51:43-07:00Economic Security News Coverage, Education News Coverage, Health News Coverage, Kids Count News Coverage, News Coverage, Racial and Ethnic Equity News Coverage|

Santa Fe Reporter--“One of the big policies that we’re excited about this year is particularly focused on Native American students and helping them to graduate, and that’s related to really making sure there is dedicated funding to support our Native students,” Wildau said. “We’re going to be really supportive of that.”

Jan 22 2024

Report: Child welfare advocates cite reasons for optimism despite rising rates of death, abuse

2024-01-22T14:36:16-07:00Economic Security News Coverage, Education News Coverage, Health News Coverage, Kids Count News Coverage, News Coverage, Racial and Ethnic Equity News Coverage, Tax and Budget News Coverage|

Santa Fe New Mexican--"All of these common-sense decisions ... not only prevented a significant decline in well-being for New Mexico kids and families, but it also laid a strong foundation for us to continue seeing improvements in many indicators of child well-being in the 2022 data," Wildau said.

Jun 17 2023

Why the State’s ranking shouldn’t get you down

2023-06-20T15:48:59-06:00Blog Posts, Economic Security Blog, Economic Security News Coverage, Education Blog, Education News Coverage, Health Blog, Health News Coverage, Kids Count Blog, Kids Count News Coverage, News Coverage|

Las Cruces Sun-News--The fact is, New Mexico has made some extraordinary headway in improving opportunities for kids in recent years. Some of it’s made nationwide headlines. Our investments in child care assistance, voter-approved expansion of early childhood services, and child-focused tax policy improvements all received national accolades.

Jun 15 2023

Report: New Mexico improving, but still ranks at bottom for child well being

2023-06-20T15:39:32-06:00Economic Security News Coverage, Education News Coverage, Health News Coverage, Kids Count News Coverage, News Coverage|

NM Political Report--Wallin said New Mexico Voices for Children would like to see the state “continue to keep up its investments in kids and families.” “The key is we don’t stop now. We continue to look at the long view. We continue to find new areas,” she said, adding that one could be increasing child educator pay.

Jun 14 2023

Worst for child well-being: New Mexico 50th in annual Kids Count report

2023-06-14T15:28:26-06:00Economic Security News Coverage, Education News Coverage, Health News Coverage, Kids Count News Coverage, News Coverage|

Albuquerque Journal--But Amber Wallin, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, said the state has launched new programs that may take time to show up in the annual report. The state, she said, dramatically expanded a child care assistance program in mid-2021 — the year much of the data is based on — and voters just last year authorized hefty increases in the funding available for early childhood education and K-12 schools.

Jun 14 2023

New Mexico again last in Kids Count report but state advocate sees progress

2023-06-20T15:33:43-06:00Economic Security News Coverage, Education News Coverage, Health News Coverage, Kids Count News Coverage, News Coverage|

Santa Fe New Mexican--“The thing about the rankings is that they’re only one small part of the story about child well-being and about opportunity. … They don’t tell us about where we’ve been as a state, how far we’ve come or where we should be going,” Wallin said.

Jun 14 2023

New Mexico ranks as the worst state for child well-being

2023-06-14T15:20:26-06:00Economic Security News Coverage, Education News Coverage, Health News Coverage, Kids Count News Coverage, News Coverage, Tax and Budget News Coverage|

KOAT TV--The 2023 Kids County Data Book shows New Mexico ranks last in the nation for child well-being. New Mexico was ranked on 16 different indicators for the well-being of children. The report shows New Mexico ranks 49th in economic well-being, with 24% of children living in poverty.

Jan 20 2023

Mixed results from annual Kids Count Data Book

2023-01-30T13:44:03-07:00Economic Security News Coverage, Health News Coverage, Kids Count News Coverage, News Coverage, Racial and Ethnic Equity News Coverage|

NM Political Report--New Mexico continues to sit last in the U.S. for reading and math proficiency but the rates of those proficiencies over the long term have improved at a higher rate when compared to the U.S. rates, Wildau said. “It’s not as high as we’d like but we have seen improvements. And the number of improvements are stronger over the long term than the U.S. as a whole,” Wildau said.

Jan 18 2023

Report: Pandemic’s effects worsened for New Mexico families in 2022

2023-01-30T13:27:18-07:00Economic Security News Coverage, Education News Coverage, Health News Coverage, Kids Count News Coverage, News Coverage, Racial and Ethnic Equity News Coverage|

Santa Fe New Mexican--On a positive note, more young New Mexicans are enrolled in prekindergarten programs than at any time in the past decade, the 2022 data shows. Wallin attributed this change to recent investments in New Mexico’s early education system: It’s “one of our strong suits.”

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