New Mexico In Depth--“The one area where she did do well in, and we give her credit for, is the Medicaid expansion. That had an immediate and dramatic impact on some of the health stats for our children,” Jimenez said. That action cut the child uninsurance rate in half, from 10% down to 5%, with New Mexico zooming past 12 states in that area.
Santa Fe Reporter--Lawmakers pushed a slew of bills through during the 2019 Legislative session addressing education inequities, and the governor signed many of them. But those efforts will take a while to be felt on the ground, experts say. This is the second year in a row, and the third time overall, that New Mexico ranked 50th in the nation in an overall score based on individual rankings in four categories.
Las Cruces Sun-News--The Kids Count report found that 18% of the nation’s children live in poverty, down from the Great Recession. But the same advances weren’t seen in the Southwest, where many children are Native Americans, Latinos and immigrants who have long faced disadvantages. “The nation’s racial inequities remain deep, systemic and stubbornly persistent,” said the annual Kids Count report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
KRWG FM--Those at New Mexico Voices for Children, an advocacy group that runs the state’s KIDS COUNT program, also praised legislation to increase the state’s Working Families Tax Credit, which they said benefits more than 200,000 children every year. It is not surprising that the data from 2017 reflected in this year’s report would be so poor. That was the tail end of an eight-year term by Gov. Martinez filled with budget deficits and constant fights over education reform.
Public News Service--Amber Wallin, deputy director of New Mexico Voices for Children, says it will take sustained investment to undo the damage from a decade of under-funding of programs that serve families."We're seeing big disparities for our children of color,” she states. “And this is really problematic, especially in New Mexico, because 75% of our kids are children of color. But we also think we've made a lot of progress this legislative session in trying to create some opportunities for our kids."
Santa Fe New Mexican--New Mexico offers pre-K services in both public schools and private early care facilities. While the two types are fairly comparable, the salaries are not. Pre-K teachers at public schools are paid the same salary as K-12 teachers, have the same employee benefits and are required to have specific education credentials. That matters, because the level of pre-K quality is largely determined by teacher education.
Public News Service--He adds that jobs designed to capture wasted methane also would enhance the state's economy. "We've seen, for example, in states like Colorado that have enacted commonsense methane-capture regulations, that the industry can adapt and it can be part of growing the economy," he points out.
Las Cruces Sun-News--When you filed your tax return this year, you may have noticed some changes. Maybe you got a smaller refund than usual or you owed more in state taxes. So what happened to the big fairness measures that the state Legislature just passed?
Public News Services--"Children do best in families, and being part of a family is a human need and essential to well-being," she said. "So, we'll be really prioritizing finding foster homes, both relative and non-relative, for these youths that are still being sent to group homes or institutions."
Santa Fe Reporter--The nonprofit New Mexico Voices For Children recently issued a news release that cites an estimate that the feds will have as much as a $1 billion shortfall to pay for the count, along with the dire prediction that “Trump’s underfunding … is likely to hurt NM.”