If your state is looking to improve the lives of children & strengthen its #earlychildhood systems, the question to ask is: How do we compare to New Mexico? Below I’ll unpack just a few of the recent reforms that have catapulted the state to model status. 🧵
Because this is a story about change, it’s important to begin with a little context about the very real needs driving action. New Mexico has been persistently challenged on measures of child wellbeing, ranked 50th in the nation by @aecfkidscount as recently as this year. 
But this data (which can lag several years in its reporting) really tells more about the impetus for change than it provides a real-time look at what’s happening on the ground. What is the state doing to address it? The better question might be what aren’t they doing?
Under the leadership of @GovMLG and @LtGovMorales - and with bipartisan support from the NM Legislature and voters - the state has enacted bold reforms over the past 3 years virtually certain to move the needle for children and families.
They began by fixing a broken system of program governance that - at the time - might not have been too different from the way your state operates today.
In part because of how the federal government passes along funding to the states, it’s not uncommon to see services for young children split across multiple state agencies, creating inefficiencies and forcing parents into a vast bureaucratic maze just to access services.
NM addressed this in 2019, passing legislation to knock down these silos and create a consolidated children’s agency housing all of the states services for young children: @NewMexicoECECD.
Under the leadership of @Egroginsky, the state’s first-ever Cabinet Secretary for #EarlyChildhood, the state has taken its system to a whole new level since the agency’s launch on July 1, 2020 - combining all of the services below under one roof.
Then, just a month after Sec. Groginsky’s confirmation, the NM Senate approved creation of an #EarlyChildhood Trust Fund on a unanimous, bipartisan vote. zerotothree.org/resource/new-m…
The fund, which was seeded with an initial $300 million investment, will draw annually from the state’s oil and gas revenues to bolster @NewMexicoECECD’s programmatic investments - pumping an additional $30m (or 5% of the fund’s revenues) into this account each year.
What’s happened since the agency’s launch? Well, for one, a pandemic - allowing the structure to prove its worth right away. The state led the nation in the provision of bonus pay for child care teachers working to support the efforts of essential workers. krwg.org/regional/2020-…
New Mexico was also the first - and to the best of our knowledge only - state to take action ensuring health coverage for infected #childcare employees by adding uninsured teachers to the state’s high risk insurance pool. cyfd.org/news/news/gove…
On July 1, 2021 - @NewMexicoECECD’s one year anniversary - @GovMLG stood with agency leaders to announce that the state would shift its method of calculating provider reimbursement rates for child care subsidy recipients.
Using a cutting edge cost estimation model, the state raised reimbursement rates across the board - helping to stabilize the industry and ensure payments reflect the true costs of quality care. nmececd.org/wp-content/upl…
The administration’s boldest move for children and families may have happened in April when the Governor announced NM would use COVID relief dollars to provide a year of free child care to virtually EVERY child in the state. washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/…
I say it “may” have been the boldest move with deliberation - because the announcements just keep coming.
This week Gov. Lujan Grisham announced a new grant to child care providers will increase wages for staff by $3 an hour across the board - raising the wage floor to $15 an hour for entry-level workers and $20 an hour for lead teachers. krqe.com/news/new-mexic…
Still, the biggest news from NM may be yet to come. This November, voters will have a chance to enact a constitutional amendment to increase #earlychildhood funding.
If passed, the state’s permanent fund (which draws from oil and gas revenues) will increase its contributions to education funding to the tune of roughly $230 million a year – with 60% of this money going to child care and early childhood education. huffpost.com/entry/new-mexi…
Long story short: New Mexico is coming for your Kids Count ranking. And your state might be very wise to watch their progress closely.
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