New Mexico

New Mexico again ranks at the bottom for child wellbeing – NM Political Report

Published

2 months ago

June 11, 2024

New Mexico again ranks at the bottom for child wellbeing – NM Political Report

New Mexico continues to rank at the bottom of the country for child well-being, with a score of 50th and also at the bottom for childhood education, according to the new KIDS Count Data Book. The Annie E. Casey Foundation KIDS COUNT Data Book is an annual assessment of child wellbeing state by state. Besides […]

New Mexico continues to rank at the bottom of the country for child well-being, with a score of 50^th and also at the bottom for childhood education, according to the new KIDS Count Data Book.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation KIDS COUNT Data Book is an annual assessment of child wellbeing state by state. Besides overall well-being, the foundation also ranks states on education, health, economic well-being and family and community. This year, the data book also contains information on Adverse Childhood Experiences on a state-by-state basis as well as chronic absences in schools. With 50 percent of New Mexico children experiencing one or more ACE for the 2021-2022 school year, New Mexico tied Mississippi for the highest percentage of children who experience one or more ACEs for the 2021-2022 school year, which is the year the most recent data is available.

New Mexico also had one of the highest rates of chronically absent children from school for the 2021-2022 school year, with 41 percent, which tied the state of Montana. Only Oregon, Alaska, Arizona and the District of Columbia had higher percentages of chronically absent children.

New Mexico Voices for Children noted that New Mexico has improved in its child poverty rate since previous rankings. In this data book, the study found 23 percent of children were living in poverty in 2022. In 2019, the rate was 25 percent.

“Although there’s still work to do, New Mexico’s official child poverty rate continues to improve but change takes time,” said Gabrielle Uballez, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children said through a news release. “And this measure of poverty only considers income. When we look instead at the supplemental poverty measure, which measures the impact of some of our best poverty-fighting policies, we see that New Mexico’s investments in families through refundable tax credits and income support programs have a real impact on lowering poverty rates and supporting family well-being.”

The rate of teens in New Mexico who are neither working nor in school has also improved since 2019. As of 2022, the rate was 9 percent. In 2019 it was 11 percent.

But, the state, overall, ranked 48^th in the nation for economic wellbeing for children. Only Louisiana and Mississippi ranked below New Mexico.

In recent years the state has enacted policy change in an effort to improve child wellbeing. The state spent 10 years trying to pass legislation that would enable a constitutional amendment to go before voters in 2022 to increase the distribution from the Permanent Land Grant Fund to provide more funding for early childhood education. The state created a department to oversee early childhood education in 2020.

The state has also implemented tax policy in recent years that advocates have said benefits families. But the Uballez said the policy initiatives will require patience in order to see results.

“New Mexico has invested significantly in our children, enhancing early childhood care and education services and introducing the new Child Tax Credit. While these initiatives have a real positive impact on the everyday lives of families today, it will take time for their full impact to be reflected in data. While data and rankings like Kids Count offer insights, they only provide a snapshot in time and don’t tell the whole story. For example, a recent report from the National Institute for Early Education Research showed that during the 2022-2023 school year, New Mexico preschool enrollment increased by 660 children to reach 13,227, and the state met nine out of ten quality standards benchmarks.

“It’s crucial that we continue to support policies such as refundable tax credits, child care assistance, increased funding for education, paid sick leave, universal school meals, and the Opportunity Scholarship. Additionally, we must enact paid family and medical leave, increase the child tax credit for families with young children, ensure a culturally relevant K-12 curriculum, and raise the minimum wage.

“We celebrate New Mexico for our already profound collective investment in kids and families, and urge advocates, lawmakers, and stakeholders to remain patient and confident in the long-term impact of our investments,” Uballez told NM Political Report through an email.

New Mexico ranks 50^th for education. The data book found that New Mexico eighth graders not proficient in math has worsened since 2019 when the rate was 79 percent. The rate of eighth graders not proficient in math in 2022 rose to 87 percent.

Fourth graders not proficient in reading also increased from 76 percent in 2019 to 79 percent in 2022.

But, that follows national trends. Across the U.S., 74 percent of eighth graders were not proficient in math in 2022, while in 2019, 67 percent were. Similarly, reading proficiency decreased two percentage points from 2019 to 2022 in the U.S. so that 68 percent of fourth graders in the U.S. are not up to reading proficiency.

The KIDS COUNT Data Book points out that children’s mental health significantly suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic and children did not have access to low-cost and free lunches when they had to engage in online learning during the early portion of the public health emergency. The data book recommended a list of strategies to improve learning and noted that New Mexico incentivized extended instructional time in 2023 by providing funding to districts that adopted longer school calendars. The data book also recommended community schools, because they provide wrap-around services for children and families and serve high-poverty, low-opportunity neighborhoods.

Emily Wildau, KIDS COUNT coordinator for New Mexico Voices for Children, said through the release that “New Mexico’s ranking in the education domain is heavily impacted by national standardized test scores, including fourth grade reading proficiency.”

“Reading proficiency is critical for students to succeed academically and as adults. These scores do not reflect the ability of our children, but rather an education system that is not designed with our multicultural, multilingual students in mind,” Wildau said.

NMVC also said through the release that bottom-ranked states, including New Mexico, tend to have higher populations of children of color, “highlighting that programs and systems are not designed to support them.”

In the health category, New Mexico ranked 44^th in the nation, but in the family and community category, the state ranked 49^th, with only Mississippi ranked lower.

“New Mexico’s ranking is not a reflection of who we are but serves as a motivation to continue improving the systems in New Mexico that make it possible for kids and families to thrive,” Uballez said through the release.

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New Mexico

Tanques Wildfire Update

Published

2 hours ago

July 26, 2024

Press Room

Friday, July 26, 2024

Location: Northwest corner of the Santa Fe National Forest in the Cuba Ranger District, approximately 27 miles north of Cuba, NM.

Start Date: July 18, 2024

Size: 2,745 acres with a planned perimeter of 7,000 acres

Percent completed: 35 %

Cause: Lightning

Vegetation: The wildfire is burning in ponderosa pine, pinyon-juniper, and oak.

Resources: 36 personnel including aerial resources

Overview: Santa Fe National Forest will manage the fire as a Type 3 incident with a confine and contain strategy. This means crews will manage the fire within a predetermined area (confine) and use points to stop the fire’s spread (contain). To accomplish this strategy, crews will conduct firing operations using aerial and hand ignitions within a 7000-acre planned perimeter as early as July 25 and use roads, hand lines, and natural barriers as containment lines.

The fire is burning in the Moya National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) project area and a landscape that has been thinned and treated with prescribed fire in the past. The primary objectives for the Tanques Wildfire are to provide for firefighter and public safety and improve wildlife habitat.

Highlights: Fire held within the fire perimeter overnight. Today, aerial ignitions, conducted by a helicopter, continue within the project area. Crews are managing fire activity and preparing for thunderstorms later this evening.

Weather: After a relatively calm night Thursday night, an uptick in afternoon thunderstorm activity in the fire area is forecast Friday through the weekend.

Closure Order: A temporary area and road closure is in effect to protect the public’s health and safety during firefighting operations for the Tanques Wildfire. The closure order is available on the Santa Fe National Forest’s website – Closure Order 03-10-02-24-11 .

Safety: The health and safety of firefighter and the public are always the highest priority. Please avoid the area while crews manage the Tanques Wildfire. Drones and firefighting aircraft are a dangerous mix and could lead to accidents or slow down wildfire operations. If you fly, we can’t.

Smoke: Smoke may be visible from communities along Highway 112 including El Vado and Llaves, NM and from the Jicarilla Apache Nation Indian Reservation. View an interactive smoke map on AirNow Fire and Smoke Map. To learn more about smoke impacts visit Wildfire and Prescribed Fire Smoke Resources (nm.gov).

Fire Information:

Contact Claudia Brookshire, Public Affairs Officer, Santa Fe National Forest

Phone: 505-607-0879 (available from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm)

Email: claudia.brookshire@usda.gov

Links: Santa Fe National Forest website, New Mexico Fire Info, Inciweb, and Santa Fe National Forest social media (Facebook and X).

Tanques Wildfire updates will be provided weekly.

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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.

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New Mexico

Cruisin' with New Mexico social media star Johnny James

Published

10 hours ago

July 26, 2024

Press Room

Cruisin' with New Mexico social media star Johnny James

Johnny James has become popular for showing off the quirks of New Mexico’s culture but who is he? We took a cruise and got to know him more.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — There’s a local man who’s been skyrocketing to stardom, simply by making videos about New Mexico’s unique culture.

Phrases and things only New Mexicans know. Johnny James is sharing with the world:

“Down here in New Mexico, we got our own way of doing things. And we DEFINITELY got our own way of saying things.”
“You wanna go check out that new chicken place that just opened up real quick, errr what?”
“The classic New Mexican phrase…ombers.”

Johnny James is an unintended influencer, having some fun with his own culture. He started making videos on social media during the pandemic. There’s a certain unfiltered authenticity that has garnered him hundreds of thousands of followers.

“I started making videos from a real point of view, from us down here, for us down here. And it just cracked off,” he said.

Johnny’s life hasn’t always been something you’d want to share online.

“Totally fair to say. Straight up, I’ll be all the way honest… from like 13 to when it was done, I grew up in the streets selling dope,” he said. “I got kicked out of school in the 11th grade. Had my ‘jito when I was 16. I always kinda credit him for shifting my trajectory.”

Now, at 39 years old, Johnny has four boys and has a career in music, podcasting, cannabis and, one that he hates to admit, influencing.

He knows having an influence can be a good thing.

“If I can be like, look… we have similar backgrounds but if you take a different route, look where we are now,” he said.

Johnny is using it good. Recently, he started a GoFundMe to raise money for people affected by the Ruidoso fires and flooding. As expected, New Mexicans have turned out, raising more than $70,000.

People know Johnny. When we cruised Central with him in his ’64 Impala lowrider, many people spotted him from a mile away so we had to stop a few times.

See the full cruise and story in the video above.

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New Mexico

PRC approves NM Gas Co. rate increase agreement – NM Political Report

Published

17 hours ago

July 26, 2024

Press Room

PRC approves NM Gas Co. rate increase agreement – NM Political Report

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission approved a stipulated agreement which is expected to result in a rate increase for customers. The stipulated agreement is between New Mexico Gas Company and various consumer and environmental advocates. The gas utility initially asked for the ability to collect nearly $49 million in additional revenue from customers. The […]

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission approved a stipulated agreement which is expected to result in a rate increase for customers.

The stipulated agreement is between New Mexico Gas Company and various consumer and environmental advocates. The gas utility initially asked for the ability to collect nearly $49 million in additional revenue from customers. The stipulated agreement reduced that to $30 million.

The rate increase will go into effect in October.

Commissioner James Ellison said he supports the stipulated agreement. He also expressed concerns that this is at least the fourth time in eight years that a rate case involving NM Gas Co. has been resolved through a stipulated agreement.

“I do think it’s also reasonable to ask how many stipulations in a row would we like to see before we’d like to have a litigated case,” he said.

He said the advantages of a stipulation is that it provides a mutually acceptable resolution, especially in cases where there are multiple intervening parties. That makes it unlikely that any party will appeal the ruling.

“But I do think with the litigated case, there is more scrutiny,” he said.

Commission Chairman Patrick O’Connell said he believes there’s value in both litigated cases and in stipulated agreements.

“If you just settle, settle, settle, who knows what’s buried in the trajectory there,” he said.

He said the best way to learn all the details is to have the transparency that a litigated process brings.

“Having said that, I think probably, if we have concerns about that, I think we’ll want to somehow signal that ahead of when they file their next case,” O’Connell said.

Ellison said that NM Gas Co. has indicated that the lower increase in revenue will mean that some of the projects it is undertaking, such as replacing meters, will be done more slowly. However, he said, the utility is not canceling any projects required for pipeline safety or compliance with federal regulations.

“I do take the company at its word here that they’re going to replace the 90-year-old uncoated steel pipeline first, and if they need to delay something, they’re going to delay projects that are more discretionary like the meter replacements,” he said.

Commissioner Gabriel Aguilera said that there is not 100 percent visibility about which projects will be performed using the $30 million additional revenue and which ones are going to be delayed because of the reduced amount in the stipulated agreement.

“But I received some assurance from the explanation that the projects that are needed for reliability and safety will be the ones that will be pursued here,” he said.

At the same time, Aguilera said that he does not anticipate that the projects NM Gas Co. initially requested money for will go away. He said those projects will now be delayed due to the smaller revenue increase.

“I anticipate that they will be back before us with similar if not the same projects,” he said.

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