{"id":509730,"date":"2018-01-28T00:04:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-28T07:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=509730"},"modified":"2018-01-26T21:30:49","modified_gmt":"2018-01-27T04:30:49","slug":"child-related-proposals-fail-early-often-in-the-legislature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/01\/child-related-proposals-fail-early-often-in-the-legislature\/","title":{"rendered":"Child-related proposals fail early, often in the Legislature"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_509837\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-509837\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Rotunda-771x509.jpg\" alt=\"Roundhouse Rotunda\" width=\"771\" height=\"509\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Rotunda-771x509.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Rotunda-336x222.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Rotunda-768x507.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Rotunda-1170x773.jpg 1170w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Rotunda, the central gathering space in the state capitol building in Santa Fe.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The big idea &#8212; a plan to close the achievement gap between low- and upper-income students &#8212; jumped off the pages of a magazine.<\/p>\n<p>It was 2003, and then-Rep. Mimi Stewart, an Albuquerque Democrat and former schoolteacher, read an article by the late leader of the American Federation of Teachers union, Sandra Feldman. She proposed adding five weeks to the school year for low-income kindergarten students and called it \u201cKindergarten-Plus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stewart ran a bill to create the program in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>Her version of Feldman\u2019s idea had many things going for it &#8212; not least that Stewart herself had already spent eight years in the House building political capital. Democrats had full control of the Roundhouse and a governor from their party. Plus, it didn\u2019t hurt that the idea was supported by a powerful teacher\u2019s union.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article is part of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/searchlightnm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Searchlight New Mexico\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0year-long journalistic investigation into child well-being in New Mexico. Read the series, Raising New Mexico,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/series\/raising-new-mexico\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Dig deeper<\/h3>\n<p>Wonder what the state\u2019s lawmakers are doing about New Mexico&#8217;s poor ranking? Searchlight looked at 2,586 legislative ideas on kids and families so you don&#8217;t have to. <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/01\/bill-by-bill-how-legislators-have-fought-for-nms-kids\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here to see what they learned.<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>The database<\/h3>\n<p>The Legislating for Kids database is a research tool created by Searchlight NM that lets you expertly track legislative action on child well-being over two administrations and 15 legislative sessions. Search for bills and memorials by issue, legislator or year. Track votes and vetoes. <a href=\"http:\/\/johnrroby.com\/shiny\/lege-track\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here to search the database<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Tell us what you think:<br \/>\n<a href=\"mailto:searchlight@searchlightnm.com\">searchlight@searchlightnm.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The time was good, too, for a budget request: New Mexico was rich with cash from an oil boom.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was an immediate success because these schools &#8212; teachers, principals &#8212; saw a huge gain among those who were in school 40 days longer,\u201d Stewart said, adding that parents loved it, too. \u201cThe program made (the children) look so different.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The program started as a small test in four school districts and, over 10 years, was expanded to third grade and renamed K3-Plus. A 2017 study by the Legislative Finance Committee showed K3-Plus and pre-K combined effectively brought low-income kids up to par with their peers at kindergarten entry &#8212; the Holy Grail for child advocates.<\/p>\n<p>But for all its promise, the Legislature\u2019s efforts to expand the program have been intermittent.\u00a0Today, more than 50,000 students who are eligible for K3-Plus don\u2019t have access to it.<\/p>\n<p>The program is indicative of a Legislature and executive branch which, over the years, have failed to act on hundreds of bills that might have helped New Mexico climb out of the depths of national child well-being rankings.\u00a0An analysis by Searchlight New Mexico <a href=\"http:\/\/johnrroby.com\/shiny\/lege-track\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">of 15 years of proposed legislation involving children<\/a> shows a consistent pattern of proposals failing at their earliest stages, often without a hearing.<\/p>\n<p>Bills that had the best chance were often incremental and unlikely to spur sweeping change.\u00a0And even bills like Stewart\u2019s that passed as pilot programs &#8212; and proved their worth &#8212; have been slow to gain traction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say that New Mexico state government has failed children,\u201d said Sharon Kayne, a spokeswoman for New Mexico Voices for Children, an advocacy group. \u201cRather, it has failed to take a comprehensive, coordinated approach to improving child well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt dabbles a bit here and tries something new there and hopes that small fixes will cure a very big and complex problem,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The database, along with interviews with numerous child advocates, lobbyists and lawmakers, shows efforts to improve child well-being increasingly mired in partisanship.<\/p>\n<p>The bitterness that characterizes national politics has also come home to roost.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have slowly seen it get more polarized, more divisive, more partisan every year,\u201d said J.D. Bullington, a 22-year lobbyist for education, Native American issues and health care.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Even when everyone agrees that a problem exists &#8212; for example, the fact that 77 percent of the state\u2019s schoolchildren aren\u2019t reading-proficient by fourth grade &#8212; the proposed solution is often maligned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe politics determine the outcome of a solution,\u201d Bullington said.<\/p>\n<p>Consider legislative efforts to hold back third-graders who can\u2019t read. Ending so-called \u201csocial promotion\u201d was a cornerstone of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez\u2019s public education reform agenda, which echoed many of the ideas then-Gov. Jeb Bush pushed successfully in Florida in 1999.<\/p>\n<p>Martinez promoted the idea again in her recent \u201cState of the State\u201d address.<\/p>\n<p>Despite early bipartisan support, the third-grade reading initiatives quickly turned into political poison. The issue has by now become so divisive that even the most benign legislation &#8212; a bill proposing to gather data or help kids learn to read &#8212; is targeted for failure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEach piece of legislation is not considered in a vacuum,\u201d said Jennifer Ramo, executive director of New Mexico Appleseed, a nonprofit focused on childhood poverty. \u201cWe don\u2019t think one side has a corner on the market in caring about children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This year, voters will elect a governor, lieutenant governor, land commissioner and 70 members of the House of Representatives, potentially reshaping politics and policymaking around children\u2019s issues.<\/p>\n<p>That also means 2018 is a season for the state\u2019s top lobbying groups to reset their agendas and get out the vote among their members.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to a memorial approved with bipartisan support last year, Appleseed is working with the LFC and University of New Mexico to develop a database capable of informing lawmakers which programs for families work and which don\u2019t. It will help them determine how to get the most out of taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are true believers that these interventions work, and they have known payoffs,\u201d said David Abbey, LFC executive director. \u201cI think we\u2019ve moved beyond \u2018These are good ideas, we ought to pilot them,\u2019 to, \u2018These are good ideas, we ought to serve more people.\u2019 But we\u2019ve got to do it right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An analysis by Searchlight New Mexico of 15 years of proposed legislation involving children shows a consistent pattern of proposals failing at their earliest stages, often without a hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":509837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[234,107],"class_list":["post-509730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-children","tag-roundhouse","series-raising-new-mexico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}