When it comes to child well-being the state remains at the bottom of the pile for 2023, again ranking 50th in the rankings by the annual Kids Count Survey, relied on by policy makers for guidance on what they are doing right and wrong.
For New Mexico the sad fact is that the ranking is not budging. It was 49th in 2021 and hasn't been above that for years.
The left-leaning NM Voices for Children point out that the data for the '23 rankings is largely from 2021 which was in the middle of the pandemic and before, Voices believes, increased spending on childhood education had taken hold. They report the share of children living in poverty is falling long-term, from 31% in 2015 to 24% in 2022.
The state's ranking in education for kids is miserable, if not pathetic, with a startling 79 percent of fourth graders not proficient in reading and 87 percent of eighth-graders not proficient in math. No, those are not typos.
With stats like those Voices and other interests groups supportive of MLG risk ridicule if they hang their hat on possible bright news ahead when their missions call for them to place maximum pressure on the political class to use the historic reserves to finally bring about a long awaited reversal in the social conditions crisis. This is not a time to explain away but demand better for the kids of today as well as tomorrow.
WORK FORCE
The other key number recently released is the May unemployment rate. While it is only 3.5 percent of the work force, near historic lows, the national rate is also low-- only 3.7 percent.
More important perhaps is the labor participation rate here. It remains dreadful coming in at only 56.4 percent of the workforce--a workforce bedeviled by unskilled labor, an aging workforce and many residents who are mired in addiction.
Here's why this matters:
The labor force participation rate (LFPR) is a critical indicator for gauging both the health of our economy and the overall well-being of our society and families. This index tracks the proportion of people in any specified population who are in the workforce: that is, those who are engaged in paid labor plus those who are looking for work.1
A rising LFPR signifies a more economically active population with more would-be workers and thus typically also a more broadly generated flow of work income. Conversely, a declining LFPR means that a larger share of the population is out of the labor force altogether and thus dependent for support on other resources.
The low jobless rate is good news but as with the childhood rankings they show the difficult long-term challenges New Mexico continues to face.
NOT RACIST
Reader D. Reed Eckhardt comments on our Thursday blog in which a coalition of groups opposed hydrogen energy and decried the support of it by MLG and President Biden:
I think you missed the point from the coalition against hydrogen energy about “racist environmental practices.”
They are not saying that the governor and president are racist. They are saying that what has been done by allowing the energy industry to run roughshod over the environment and climate for decades--not just in recent years--less fortunate peoples bear the brunt of the pain. It is their communities that are hardest hit by climate change--rising heat, drought, flooding, fires--and by such actions as permanently siting polluting plants, such as oil refineries, in their communities, where they suffer from air and groundwater pollution as well as other impacts.
DAY BRIGHTENER
Reader Kelley Vigil comes with this on our blog piece going down memory lane for the 2010 election:
We appreciate your reporting. NM politics, the history and the stories you report are informative and gold to we who tune in daily. What would we do without you?! Sometimes I think you should run for office, but then what would we do without you? You keep us in the know. You’re the best.
Now that's what you call a day brightener. Have a good one. (No, we're not running for anything-- except maybe Tijeras Canyon.)
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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2023
(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2023