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."
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.