KNME TV--On New Mexico in Focus correspondent Megan Kamerick sits down with Bill Jordan from New Mexico Voices for Children to discuss the latest KIDS COUNT Data Book, released this month to coincide with the start of the legislative session. The report shows improvements in some areas, but our state is still at the bottom of the nation in nearly all measures of child and family well-being.
Santa Fe New Mexican--Quality Counts comes just days after the personal finance website WalletHub issued a report calling New Mexico the worst state to raise a family and the nonprofit New Mexico Voices for Children released its annual Kids Count Data Book, showing a rise in poverty among the state’s children — to 29 percent — and a decline in the number of kids with health insurance.
Las Cruces Sun-News--Quality of life is low for children in New Mexico, according to a new report. The 2017 New Mexico Kids Count Data Book found more children are living in poverty, are without health insurance and are living in single-parent households than a year ago. The report from the New Mexico Voices for Children ranked New Mexico as the second-worst state in child well-being, saying 29 percent of New Mexico children live in poverty.
Santa Fe New Mexican--“It’s a real mixed bag,” James Jimenez, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, said of the report. “The encouraging thing is that some of the indicators are moving in the right direction, but clearly poverty continues to be a major concern … it can compromise a child’s long-term ability to thrive.”
New Mexico In Depth--We all want a prosperous state, but prosperity requires investments. You can’t grow a garden without good soil, sunlight, water, and some hard work. Same with a state—you can’t have prosperity without resources, infrastructure, and a skilled workforce. But instead of following an investment strategy to prosperity, New Mexico has tried to cut its way to prosperity.
Santa Fe New Mexican--“It does provide a sort of snapshot, but I would also say it’s a bit of an incomplete snapshot because it doesn’t really show the resilience of New Mexico families and that how in really tough economic times, New Mexico families have been working hard to do well by their families,” said Jimenez, a former secretary of the state Department of Finance and Administration. “That’s sort of a piece that’s missing from it.”
Santa Fe New Mexican--“These two programs are not only critical for the well-being of New Mexico’s children and hardworking families, but they are also important to the state’s economy,” said James Jimenez, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, a liberal advocacy group.
Albuquerque Journal--It was discouraging to see a bunch of anti-Medicaid letters parroting Governor Martinez’s inaccuracies about the cost of the program. The truth is, Medicaid is saving the state money while providing care to our children, seniors, the disabled, and neighbors in need—thanks in large part to the Affordable Care Act.
New Mexico In Depth--A couple of years ago a mother came to Ray Jaramillo, director of a childcare center in Las Cruces. She worked for minimum wage at Burger King, but was offered a supervisory position with better hours and a wage bump to over $9 an hour. She worried the extra money could cause her to lose childcare assistance for her two little girls.
New Mexico In Depth--Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima has been hearing complaints and concerns from businesses throughout the process to increase his city’s minimum wage from the state minimum of $7.50 in 2014 to $10.10 an hour in 2019.