New Mexico has made some major investments aimed at improving the lives of kids around the state. Just this year the legislature passed and the governor signed into law free universal childcare, which came a year after creating a trust fund specifically dedicated to early childhood.
But a new report from New Mexico Voices for Children takes a deeper look at whether or not any of those are actually making a difference on a day-to-day level.
They call it the Children's Roadmap. The report brings together formerly disparate data on education, health care and family economic security, and makes recommendations for how to make those policies work for everyday people, no matter where they are.
Emily Wildau, director of policy for Voices, said since passing the laws and making the headlines, the state now has a real challenge on its hands.
“At the same time,” she said, “there is the very unsexy work of implementing well.”
That means making sure programs that already exist, as well as anything coming down the pipe, actually reach the families that need them.
Wildau said health care is a good example, as the state has stepped in to cover Affordable Care Act subsidies that were cut by the Trump Administration, and have kept costs low while expanding the number of people covered.
“But do people even have a place to use their insurance?” she said.
There are some counties that completely lack pediatricians, school-based health centers and OB-GYNs.
The problem comes up elsewhere too, like childcare.
Gabrielle Uballez, executive director of Voices, said the state has added about 10,000 new childcare slots over the last year. But she said the state needs to learn how to expand that coverage to more rural areas while maintaining a high quality.
The report makes policy recommendations for ensuring students get support, addressing health care workforce shortages, and increasing family security by increasing incomes, and expanding access to public benefits and tax credits.
That’s why they’re hosting a series of roundtable discussions around the state.
“This isn't everything, and not every answer is here,” she said. “But there are a lot of provocative pieces of information that will help us find new solutions to all these issues.”
U.S. Sen.Martin Heinrich attended the first roundtable, which was hosted in the same building as NM Voices for Children headquarters in Downtown Albuquerque. He said he was inspired by the discussion, which included representatives from several other nonprofits and advocacy organizations, and even the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.
“The only way that we are going to really invest and see the results that we want to see in our greatest asset, which is the next generation,” he said, “is if we start working together across all of those silos.”
The next roundtable will take place in Farmington on September 25 — details are available online — and they’re hosting a virtual event in October.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
