New Mexico is seeing improvements in child poverty and economic well-being according to this year’s Annie E. Casey’s Kids COUNT report, but the state still ranks 49th in the nation for child well-being overall. Advocates say major investments in children are making a difference, though the full impact may take years to appear.
This year’s Databook includes a new scoring system that measures progress since 2019, and indicated the state showed gains in several areas, including child poverty. The share of children living in poverty fell to 22%, the lowest rate New Mexico has seen in at least 16 years.
But the state continues to struggle in other areas, particularly education. Emily Wildau, policy director at New Mexico Voices for Children, said the state has long struggled even before the pandemic, but solutions exist.
For the years 2020-24, the report indicated that 60% of young children, ages 3 to 4, were not in school. For proficiency, 80% of fourth graders were not proficient in reading and 86% of eighth graders were not proficient in math. Leaving the state ranking 50th overall in education.
“We still need to have the state come into compliance with the Martinez/Yazzie ruling and produce a comprehensive plan that is well funded that we can use as our north star to move education forward,” said Wildau.
The landmark education lawsuit settled back in 2018, found the state was not meeting its constitutional obligation to provide an equitable education to low income, special education, Native American students and English language learners.
Education remains one of the biggest factors holding New Mexico’s overall ranking back. And Wildau said the largest investments in children recently are still relatively new.
Since 2022 early childhood programs have been expanded through the Land Grant Permanent Fund and even last year’s rollout of universal childcare. Wildau explained that those changes will take time to show up in the data.
“We would expect to see really good data coming out in 2028 where we would be able to get a better sense of what’s being impacted by that,” said Wildau.
Wildau noted the KIDS COUNT Data Book measures 16 indicators of child well-being, but it doesn’t capture every policy designed to support families, including expanded child tax credits and other recent state investments.
This coverage is supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation KUNM listeners like you.
