Holloman Air Force Base To Take In Afghan Refugees - Associated Press
Holloman Air Force Base is among several military installations that will take in Afghan refugees, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Friday.
The base near Alamogordo joins others in Virginia, Texas, Wisconsin and New Jersey that temporarily will provide housing, along with medical and other support for up to 50,000 refugees, their families and other vulnerable Afghans, said Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby.
Refugees will undergo medical screening, including testing for the coronavirus, before arriving at the military installations. They are coming to the U.S. under the Special Immigrant Visa program.
The Defense Department didn't say how many refugees would be sent to Holloman or when they would arrive.
The Taliban seized control of most of Afghanistan as the U.S. withdrew support to the Afghan military. Tens of thousands of Afghans have been left the country. President Joe Biden has set Aug. 31 as the deadline to complete the U.S.-led evacuation.
New Mexico Flush With Cash As Revenues Climb, Oil Recovers - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
New Mexico is flush with cash due to a quick recovery of oil and gas markets and higher than expected gross receipts tax revenues as consumers spend federal stimulus checks and tap into other recovery aid, state finance officials and legislative analysts said.
The officials briefed a key panel of state lawmakers on Friday. They said while revenues are expected to hit record levels for the next fiscal year, the pandemic remains a risk factor that still has the potential to derail economic recovery if cases continue to surge or shutdowns are imposed again.
While widespread shutdowns are not likely, the forecast shows what analysts described as a significant upward revision in recurring revenues for the current fiscal year — an increase of more than $632 million from estimates made just six months ago. Nearly $1.4 billion in new money is expected for the 2023 fiscal year, marking growth of nearly 19%.
That means lawmakers will have more money than ever before to spend on education, roads, public safety and other government programs. It also means more money is expected to be funneled into the state's permanent endowments.
Some lawmakers warned that the federal recovery aid won't be around forever and urged fellow members of the Legislative Finance Committee to continue building up the state's reserves.
The favorable forecast also is fueled by growth in high- and mid-wage employment in the first half of 2021. As a result, officials said, total wages and salaries in the state neared pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter, and total personal income in New Mexico reached record heights during the pandemic and continues to grow.
But low-wage jobs have yet to bounce back, said Stephanie Schardin Clarke, head of the state Taxation and Revenue Department.
"So there's been a redistribution happening here over the pandemic," she said, "and as policymakers we're hearing that revenues are way up, but I just want to emphasize that there are still deep job losses and those who probably didn't have savings at the onset of the pandemic are the same ones who may not have regained their job yet."
Officials with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's administration pointed to two independent economic forecasts that warned it could be the end of 2026 before New Mexico returns to pre-pandemic employment levels. The state has recovered about 44% of the jobs that were lost at the start of the pandemic, but jobless rates in the state remain above national levels.
As for the contributions of oil and gas, Dawn Iglesias, the committee's chief economist, noted that New Mexico is now the second largest producer in the U.S. and is the only top producing state so far to have recovered to above pre-pandemic production levels.
New Mexico in April reached a record level of oil production with more than 1.2 million barrels a day. Natural gas production hit a record of 6.5 billion cubic feet of gas a day in May.
"Together for oil and natural gas, these higher prices and higher production levels are really resulting in those very strong severance tax and federal royalty collections," Iglesias said. "But again, those strong expectations are highly dependent on the oil and gas markets and where those prices actually end up coming in over the year and of course those can be volatile."
New Mexico Sees Over 900 COVID Cases Again, Navajo Nation Reports 55 – KUNM News. Associated Press
The New Mexico Department of Health reported 958 new COVID-19 cases Friday, the second day in a row the state saw over 900 cases. The state also reported nine deaths related to the virus for the second consecutive day.
Bernalillo County -which includes Albuquerque - saw the most new cases, with 175. The only other county that saw triple-digit cases was Chaves county, in the Southeast.
The Torrance County Detention Facility saw 6 new cases among those held by federal agencies Friday.
The Navajo Nation on Thursday reported 55 new COVID-19 cases and one more death.
The latest numbers pushed the tribe's totals to 32,430 coronavirus cases and 1,400 known deaths since the pandemic began more than a year ago.
The vast Navajo Nation spans parts of New Mexico, Utah and Arizona.
"Health care facilities on the Navajo Nation are currently administering booster shots to individuals with compromised immune systems," tribal President Jonathan Nez said. "In order to see a consistent reduction in new COVID-19 cases, we need more of our Navajo Nation residents to get fully vaccinated as soon as possible."
Nez has said all Navajo Nation executive branch employees will need to be fully vaccinated against the virus that causes COVID-19 by the end of September or be required to submit to regular testing.
The new rules apply to full, part-time and temporary employees, including those working for tribal enterprises like utilities, shopping centers and casinos.
Any worker who does not show proof of vaccination by Sept. 29 must be tested every two weeks or face discipline.
New Mexico Sees Steep Rise In Overdose Deaths Amid Pandemic - Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
New Mexico is seeing soaring numbers of deadly overdoses from fentanyl and methamphetamine and alcohol-related deaths reached an all-time high in 2020 despite the state tripling spending on treatment over the last several years, according to a report presented to state lawmakers yesterday.
Preliminary figures show that fentanyl-related deaths alone increased by 129% between 2019 and 2020, legislative analysts said. That percentage is expected to climb even higher when final totals for the last year are calculated.
The trend mirrors what has been happening nationally. Drug overdose deaths in the United States rose nearly 30% in 2020 to a record 93,000, according to statistics released by federal health officials. That marked the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period in the U.S.
The report says the pandemic contributed to the surge of overdose deaths in New Mexico by disrupting outreach to treatment and increased social isolation. It also noted that the lingering pandemic has highlighted the need for behavioral health care given the high levels of grief, isolation, unemployment and anxiety that many people have been experiencing.
The report was presented to members of the Legislative Finance Committee, a key panel that sets the state's spending priorities and crafts the budget each year.
Cally Carswell, a program evaluator with the committee, outlined some of the grim statistics for lawmakers. More than 43,000 New Mexicans have died from alcohol and drug overdoses in the last three decades. The deaths in a single year reached their highest point yet in 2020, with 1,770 alcohol-related deaths and 766 overdose deaths.
While New Mexico has long had some of the highest death rates from such causes, Carswell said the nature of the drug epidemic has shifted.
Fentanyl and meth have surpassed heroin and prescription opioids as the leading causes of overdose deaths in the state. In fact, the two drugs were involved in 78% of overdose deaths in 2020.
She noted that some of the state's harm-reduction programs don't have the flexibility to address fentanyl and meth due to outdated statutes that focus only intravenous drug use and restrict the distribution of test strips that could help identify whether fentanyl has been cut into other drugs.
The New Mexico Human Services Department spent at least $147 million in state and Medicaid funds last year to provide core treatment services to people with a substance use disorder. That's more than triple the $45.6 million spent in 2014. The number of services also increased by 85% over the same period, with more than 60,700 patients receiving some kind of treatment last year.
While New Mexico has increased provider rates and made other changes to bolster the state's behavioral health safety net, officials said treatment is only part of the equation. They pointed to the need for more prevention and early intervention programs that can tackle the underlying causes of substance abuse, including poverty and childhood trauma.
According to the report, an estimated 134,000 New Mexicans are living with a substance use disorder and receiving no treatment.
The report also states more work needs to be done to improve the quality of behavioral health care, boost access, increase financial incentives, and build a workforce that better represents the state's cultural and racial demographics.
Lawrence Medina, executive director of the Rio Grande Alcoholism Treatment Program in Taos, told lawmakers about efforts there to reopen a detox center and eventually a residential treatment center. He said people are falling through the cracks and land either in jail or the hospital.
He called for gaps in recovery options to be closed, saying he himself was a client of the treatment program 30 years ago.
"Recovery is alive and well," he said.
How New Mexico Schools Are Spending $1B In Pandemic Funding - Associated Press
Cedar Attanasio, Associated Press / Report for America
An avalanche of federal money is allowing New Mexico school districts to buy items long on their wish lists — particularly in schools with large populations of low-income students.
Since March 2020, the federal government has provided $190 billion in pandemic aid to the states for their schools, or more than four times what the U.S. Department of Education provides to the same K-12 schools in a typical year.
The Associated Press, relying on data published or provided by states and the federal government, tallied how much pandemic relief funding was granted to nearly every school district in the U.S. Nationally, the aid averages nearly $2,800 per student, but it varies widely by district and state.
The $1 billion set aside for New Mexico is a significant sum in a state that allocates about $3 billion to schools annually. Around 90% of the funds go directly to school districts, while state officials get to distribute the rest.
The highest average per student amount in New Mexico was $15,000 in Wagon Mound, a small rural district where all children are eligible for Title I, a federal funding program for low-income schools also used to allocate the pandemic funds. The lowest, in comparatively affluent Los Alamos, was around $100. The average amount granted per student in New Mexico was $3,150.
In Wagon Mound, the school district got over $1 million in additional funding for fewer than 100 students. The district went from having few or no computers for students to having a tablet or laptop for children of all ages and funding to cover replacement devices. Other rural districts did the same.
"We're able to get things for our students and the school at large that we were never able to get before because we didn't have the funding for it," said Monica Montoya, principal of Wagon Mound Elementary school and a Title I coordinator.
Statewide, computers, internet hot spots, COVID-19 cleaning supplies and air purification upgrades were the most frequently budgeted items by New Mexico schools during the first waves of pandemic funding released last year.
They quickly purchased the goods — with officials sometimes unsure about how they would pay for them — as schools struggled to reopen, connect students to remote learning and protect school workers from being infected.
The first two rounds of pandemic relief funding were meant to help districts in the emergency, with flexible spending rules and minimal oversight. About 20% had to be used to help children catch up on lost or incomplete learning, while another 80% was mostly at the district's discretion.
The New Mexico Public Education Department has still required districts to report how they planned to spend the money.
In Albuquerque, public school leaders prioritized issuing $1,000 bonuses to 12,000 employees, according to the district's plan for pandemic spending. The per student pandemic spending amount for Albuquerque Public Schools was about $3,200.
The district's plan also listed as priorities upgrading internet services and buying laptops for kids who did not have them. Other funds were budgeted for mental health support and distance learning materials.
The district had struggled to recruit teachers and bus drivers before the pandemic and feared it would face a staff shortage in the fall.
In northwestern New Mexico, at the doorstep of the Navajo Nation, Gallup-McKinley County Schools also purchased laptops and tablets for the district's students, spending $7,000 per student with the pandemic funding.
"We were able to leverage federal funding to not only get one-to-one devices last year, but we have funding that can carry us out for the next six years," Superintendent Mike Hyatt told school board members this week.
New Mexico has been increasing school funding over the past few years, bringing per-pupil funding to levels not seen since before the financial collapse that began in 2007.
Gallup-McKinley County Schools serves many Native American students but has been hurt financially because it is surrounded by tribal lands which cannot be taxed to support the district's schools.
The next and largest round of pandemic relief funding to benefit U.S. schools is aimed at helping schools that are trying to make up for the learning that students lost while they were studying at home.
About $500 million in non-emergency school pandemic funds must still be budgeted by the state's school districts and federal rules require them to seek community input before they allocate the money.
Albuquerque is hosting online public forums starting next week titled: "What should we become?"
Schools in Los Alamos still have about $200,000 to spend and parents indicated that they want individual tutoring and more after-school activities for students.
In Wagon Mound, the process started on Facebook, where parents said they wanted to bring back home economics classes and repair the district's long-neglected baseball field. A public forum was held Wednesday.
New Mexico Youth Livestock Expo Relocating To Roswell – Associated Press
The New Mexico Youth Livestock Expo is relocating to Roswell over Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's State Fair vaccination mandate.
The expo will be held in Roswell from Sept. 14-17.
Grisham's most recent health order mandated vaccinations for all eligible individuals who attend and participate in the New Mexico State Fair in Albuquerque.
The result of the mandate was the exclusion of 4-H and FFA children who did not want the vaccine or did not have time to complete the two-dose vaccine cycle before the fair.
'Lost cause': New Mexico Students Have Fewer sSchool Days -Cedar Attanasio, Associated Press/ Report for America
New Mexico students have fewer school days than other children in the U.S., and a decade of research and investment by state officials hasn't changed that fact.
In a legislative hearing Thursday, one expert called extra learning a "lost cause," suggesting that children won't recover academically from the pandemic because school districts have declined to add extra learning days to their calendars.
Most states have a minimum of 180 school days for districts. New Mexico sets goals for the number of days and instructional hours that students get, but even those standards can be waived. Some schools operate only four days per week, and some students have 150 or fewer school days.
The state has allocated millions of dollars to pay for the extra teacher hours. The voluntary programs add 25 days of school for children in K-5 and 10 days for higher grades.
But the funding has failed to win over school districts. Many parents and teachers don't want summers shortened. Legislators proposed making the programs mandatory, but the idea died in a Senate subcommittee.
"I tend to treat it as a lost cause. It didn't happen," economist Stephen Barro told lawmakers. "Some losses, we're not ever going to make up now."
Legislators at the committee hearing in Taos heard from Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus, who answered their questions for the first time after taking the position last week. Steinhaus' predecessor was from out of state, and he quit his post after two years.
"I'm glad you're from New Mexico," Rep. Harry Garcia said. "We want to keep you for a long time."
Steinhaus said he endorses a universal mandate for extending the school year, "especially with that extra 10 days," the program aimed at upper grades.
A mandate won't be revisited until the next legislative session, in early 2022, and it would not go into effect in the 2022-2023 school year.
Lawmakers also heard from Karen Sanchez-Griego, superintendent of the Cuba Independent School District, who signed all of her schools up for the additional learning days.
Those days, on top of social worker support and tailored solutions to student needs — one without electricity was given a solar panel to charge her laptop — the district neutralized learning loss.
"At the end of the year in May we didn't see any growth. But we didn't see regression," Sanchez-Griego said.
Cuba was one of a few districts that conducted widespread student testing, despite waivers from state officials that allowed them not to do so.
The district also increased graduation rates in recent years, from below the state average to above it. Among Native American students, the graduation rate increased from 58% to 88% between 2017 and 2020, according to state education data.