The new KIDS COUNT Data Book from New Mexico Voices for Children shows the state has made progress and that those investments may help it weather uncertainty from the federal government.
EMILY WILDAU: Every year, there's a lot of nuance and complicated things we learn from the data. It's really important, and it's not the whole story. But what we are seeing is kind of the preamble of what we expect to see continue with universal childcare. So since 2021 the number of children receiving childcare assistance in the state has doubled, and 68% of those families actually have children under six and are earning incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level, and that's before we account for this big expansion that's just happened.
So that's pretty exciting.
We continue to see a slow increase in high school graduation rates, and we continue to see that the state supplemental poverty rate, we continue to see that lower than the national average.
KUNM: And like you mentioned, there has been so much significant progress made, but in what areas is the state still struggling in?
WILDAU: You know, we're seeing this kind of slow and continuing uptick. It's been for the last few years of children who live in households that are burdened by high housing costs. So their families are spending 30% or more of their income on housing.
We know that our reading and math proficiency levels are pretty much unchanged, and we have seen the chronic absenteeism rate rise a little bit again. So it had dropped down from the really significant COVID highs to 30% in the 2023-24 school year, but it's back up to 33% in 2024-25, and we continue to see that little bit of an increase of kids without health insurance, post-COVID era policies that really brought those rates down,
KUNM: Getting back to education and chronic absenteeism from the data over the last several years, we know this is an area where New Mexico struggles consistently, but how should policymakers or even state agencies respond to bolster those numbers?
WILDAU: I think the biggest reason kids aren't in the classroom is, first of all, their families are dealing with really serious basic needs and affordability issues that sometimes lead those kids to have emergency situations where they can't get to school. So, addressing those needs for families and kids is one piece. I think the other piece is that kids are not engaged in school. Are schools providing the kinds of skills and content that kids know they need to succeed when they finish school? And are they culturally, linguistically relevant to our kids? The Yazzie/Martinez deficiency lawsuit is still in the courts. We are not seeing yet the kind of plan that I think really provides that guidance and that comprehensive structure for how we change these engagement issues and get more kids in the classroom.
KUNM: We saw the decision from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last fall to roll out universal child care. This was a controversial announcement, but considering the jumps already made in the data when it comes to access for child care, what should folks expect to see in the future?
WILDAU: The thing that we're really excited about is what this promise can mean for families. It can mean that everybody has this right to child care and everybody is eligible to receive it, saving lots of money for households all across the income spectrum and freeing up parents for work and to be able to go and make that income to support their families.
What we're really wanting to see happen next is that focus on implementation, to make sure that there's enough capacity in the child care system for everyone, and to make sure that as that capacity is scaled up, the people that really need it the most are the ones that are getting access. So, we do really want to see that continued focus, with the majority of people receiving assistance being on the lower income spectrum.
KUNM: I do want to talk a little bit more about health care. Is there an access problem going on? Or what are the challenges there?
WILDAU: There’s this huge risk happening at the federal level with threats and already past cuts to Medicaid, new work requirements for Medicaid that have never existed before, and just kind of that continued concern about health insurance premiums for folks who are buying their own insurance through the [state] marketplace. New Mexico has taken really big strides to make sure people, especially in the marketplace, are still able to afford their insurance. We think that's going to prevent a lot of kids from losing coverage. So now we have to make sure that, as the federal law requires work requirements for people on Medicaid, that we're making sure folks with families are able to meet those requirements.
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