{"id":581660,"date":"2018-05-16T14:28:53","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T20:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=581660"},"modified":"2018-05-18T08:26:12","modified_gmt":"2018-05-18T14:26:12","slug":"qa-cervantes-says-relationships-understanding-of-nm-will-help-him-improve-kids-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/05\/qa-cervantes-says-relationships-understanding-of-nm-will-help-him-improve-kids-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&#038;A: Cervantes says relationships, understanding of NM will help him improve kids&#8217; lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_565180\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-565180\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Cervantes-Joseph-771x535.jpg\" alt=\"Joseph Cervantes\" width=\"771\" height=\"535\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Cervantes-Joseph-771x535.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Cervantes-Joseph-336x233.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Cervantes-Joseph-768x533.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Cervantes-Joseph-1170x812.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Cervantes-Joseph.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joseph Cervantes<\/p><\/div>\n<p>New Mexico In Depth is speaking with the candidates for New Mexico governor on the issues of early childhood, child wellbeing and education in New Mexico. State Sen.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/joe4nm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joseph Cervantes<\/a>\u00a0of Las Cruces is one of three candidates seeking the Democratic nomination. He is a lawyer and small business owner in southern New Mexico. This Q&amp;A has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sylvia Ulloa, NMID:\u00a0What would early childhood education in New Mexico look like in a Cervantes administration?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Joe Cervantes:\u00a0I recognized from my years working on the budget and with the Land Grant Permanent Fund that funds are dedicated to education, and I have supported and actually introduced legislation to use the Land Grant Permanent Funds for early childhood education, so I support that initiative. The reality is, we\u2019d have to put in infrastructure that builds on the existing infrastructure because we\u2019re talking about quite a bit more money.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/2018\/05\/11\/qa-cervantes-touts-relationships-understanding-of-state-to-improve-kids-lives-in-nm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico In Depth<\/a>. Sign up for\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=1d2ab093d81b992e50978b363&amp;id=9294743d38\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>We have proven results from things like K-3 Plus, which adds more days to the school calendar for children who are the most vulnerable in our state. We need to expand on programs that work, and then we need to get into the households of families who need state assistance in the early years of raising families.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: You haven\u2019t had to vote on a Land Grant bill in the Senate because it has never gotten out of committee there. So, what kind of bill would you support?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cervantes: (The bills don\u2019t advance) not because there\u2019s opposition to the idea; it\u2019s in the details. Look, the reason (the state permanent funds are worth) $23 billion is because they\u2019ve been invested over the years and protected by a lot of people. Can it afford to see more of a distribution? Yes, it can. How much more becomes the issue and for how long, and for what purpose.<\/p>\n<p>I think what\u2019s important for folks to realize is that it gets held up in the committee process for a reason. The difference I will make as a governor is that I\u2019ll have the relationships with the people on those committees, both in the House, Patty Lundstrom, and the Senate, John Arthur Smith, and their committee members. I think they\u2019ll trust me to make sure that we\u2019re accountable for those monies and they\u2019re well spent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: Under the Trump administration, there has been a shift to cut social safety net programs such as SNAP. They\u2019re talking about taking $20 billion out of that fund and putting in work requirements for Medicaid. As governor, if those things came to pass, how would you deal with that?<\/strong><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Cervantes: The next governor is going to inherit a federal government that is antagonistic to a lot of things that are important to New Mexicans. The federal government, for example, is talking about cutting back to not only the SNAP program, but to Medicaid funding and many other things that are important to our infrastructure. The next governor is going to have to deal with that as a challenge, and that\u2019s going to mean going to New Mexicans and telling them, look, the federal government is putting us in this position and we\u2019re going to have to respond to that because the needs of New Mexicans are dependent on health insurance, on funding for some of our families that are in greatest need. And the alternative is not to just cut these families off.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: One of the biggest predictors of educational outcomes is income level: In New Mexico, 30 percent of children live in poverty, 17 percent suffer food insecurity and more than a third have parents without secure full-time employment. As governor, what would you do to change some of those grim statistics?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cervantes: Ultimately, we\u2019ve got to make the job opportunities greater for families in New Mexico. We\u2019ve got to improve wages, we\u2019ve got to keep families here, make them successful in their career choices, educate more children who are prepared for the jobs that are available in our state, and high paying jobs \u2014 even if they\u2019re not necessarily college track. It\u2019s about opportunities. That starts with education in the long term, but in the short-term, we\u2019ve got to put New Mexicans to work by improving the efficiency by which the state spends money.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: Can you give me an example?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cervantes: The best example is capital outlay. We have about a billion dollars that is already committed to projects around the state. The money\u2019s already been bonded on Wall Street; we\u2019re paying interest on that money. We\u2019ve got projects that are committed, but they\u2019re not going to work, they\u2019re not creating jobs. The reason for that is a breakdown between local government, and legislators and the governor. Everybody\u00a0 funds their own project in their own small part of the state rather than us coming together collaboratively and putting together the big, important projects that are ready to go right now. If we did that, there\u2019d be a billion dollars worth of construction going on in New Mexico today.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: Another huge indicator of educational attainment and success in life is Adverse Childhood Experiences, things like child abuse, domestic violence, parental substance abuse. We have awful examples of child abuse, just recently up in Namb\u00e9, and here in Do\u00f1a Ana County with Baby Brianna. Do you think the changes being made at the Children, Youth and Families Department are headed in the right direction? Would you do something differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cervantes: I\u2019d do things very differently. Children Youth and Families has not risen to the task \u2014 and it\u2019s an enormous task \u2014 but we\u2019ve got to have people that are going to address it. We (had an example) just last week where a young child was being prostituted by her parents. CYFD had been called on that child 24 times. We\u2019ve had children who have been subjected to brutalizing abuse, torture, deaths, and in most cases the state had warnings of those children in trouble, those families in crisis, and the state just didn\u2019t respond quickly enough and in an appropriate way. The reason for that, very simply, is those budgets and those agencies have been cut to the bone. The thinking is that by not raising taxes, by keeping budgets lean, that we\u2019ve accomplished something, and that\u2019s cost children\u2019s lives in our state and tragedies that are not an acceptable trade-off for a pledge not to raise taxes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: CYFD did get about $25 million more this legislative session to add case workers and for child care assistance, which keeps kids in safe environments, so they\u2019ve made some movement.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cervantes: Well, that\u2019s good news to report, but that increase came simply because oil and gas prices rose again. We can\u2019t base our budget and the way we conduct ourselves as a state, up and down, as oil revenues come and go. When oil revenues are down, as it has been over the last several years, we can\u2019t throw our kids over the side of the boat and say we don\u2019t have the resources to meet their needs during those periods, and then say, now oil and gas prices are back up, we can meet your needs this year. That\u2019s no way to run a state and, frankly, the cost of children\u2019s lives, the danger, the torture, the abuse are not things that should ever be a trade-off. We\u2019ve got to make sure that we have revenues in place to assure those services are available year after year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: Your platform calls for an end to high-stakes testing and evaluating schools and teachers based on kids\u2019 standardized test scores. So, what would you put in their place? How would your Public Education Department (PED) maintain accountability and improve results when you have 77 percent of fourth-graders not proficient in reading and almost 80 percent of 8th graders who are not proficient in math?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cervantes: Jennifer and I have raised our three daughter here in our local school district in Las Cruces, and my daughters have had every opportunity \u2014 any college, any degree, any program. The difference is that not all New Mexico children are receiving the same opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve got to find a way to change the attitude toward our public schools.\u00a0This administration has demonized teachers \u2014 made them the source of all of our state\u2019s problems on education. This governor appointed a secretary of education who became antagonistic from the very beginning with teachers.<\/p>\n<p>So what do we do with education? We re-establish partnerships with teachers. We make teachers happy to come to work. We don\u2019t continue basing their compensation on how their students do on standardized tests. My daughters, who did well in public schools, didn\u2019t get a chance to learn history, civics, geography. Why? Because those aren\u2019t on the standardized tests. That\u2019s not the type of comprehensive education we need to provide our students here. We do need to test students, but we shouldn\u2019t be administering things like the PARCC test simply because the secretary of education is on the board of the people that sell that test.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: In a recent forum in Las Cruces, you mentioned the lawsuit against the PED over underfunding education in New Mexico. If the ruling goes against the state, as governor, how would you deal with that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cervantes: Here\u2019s the thing, we shouldn\u2019t be in a lawsuit, having the educators in our state suing the state for underfunding our schools. As governor, I\u2019ll resolve that lawsuit without having to wait on a court and a judge to decide that, and we\u2019ll take control of this matter for ourselves. A governor who\u2019s a true leader will sit down with educators, sit down with administrators, superintendents and school districts and find out where we have the resources, where we need to generate additional resources to those schools, and then make sure that we solve these lawsuits rather than rolling the dice in court. It\u2019s the wrong approach, whether it\u2019s water, whether it\u2019s education.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: But how would you address the education gap that Native American students, English language learners, and poor students, in particular, have with middle-class students?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cervantes: We need to recognize that it is not going to be about just putting more money into the system. There are limitations on where we\u2019ll be able to do that, No. 1. And No. 2, we need to recognize the problem is much bigger than that. The achievement gap between Native Americans, Hispanics and other students is not a factor of funding alone because we have an equalization guarantee in New Mexico. We make sure school districts are, in theory, funded equally across the state, so that no wealthier districts get a disproportionate share of the revenues, but we need to recognize that the achievement gap exists. And we also need to know that as a state we\u2019re going to have to bridge that achievement gap if we\u2019re going to make any progress in bringing employers to our state and keeping our young people here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: Policy-wise, do you have thoughts on how you might do that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cervantes: I do. And the good example would be here in the Gadsden school district, in my own district. (It) has a very high Hispanic population where incomes are not strong, and yet they show some of the greatest improvements on achievement in test scores. It comes down to leadership. Those schools have active and involved parents, an engaged principal and superintendent, people who are reaching out into the community and trying to make this a bigger community-wide issue rather than just believing that if we spend more money that will solve the problem.<\/p>\n<p>The idea of this administration is too simplistic. Test students, spend or don\u2019t spend money, and leave it at that. We need to go out and get parents involved, and have them involved in their children\u2019s lives. That\u2019s how we bridge the achievement gap.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: Is there anything else you\u2019d like to say?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cervantes: I\u2019ve lived my life here in New Mexico. I\u2019ve attended college here. We built our businesses here. We\u2019ve been fortunate to see a lot of success, and so I want to make sure that all New Mexicans have that same opportunity. New Mexico serves a very small group of people very well: the people that are connected in our state. I want to be a candidate for governor who will be straight with them, who will be able to show the experience that we haven\u2019t had for 44 years and seven administrations, who have never come into the governor\u2019s office with the proper background out of the Legislature. And then, frankly, somebody who has the courage to do the right thing.<\/p>\n<p><em>You can find Cervantes&#8217; policy positions\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/joe4nm.com\/policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Disclaimer: NMID did not fact check every statement made by candidates in these interviews.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn what Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joseph Cervantes thinks about the issues of early childhood, child wellbeing and education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":565180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,431],"tags":[2238,234,3319,107],"class_list":["post-581660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-qa","tag-2018-election","tag-children","tag-joseph-cervantes","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581660","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=581660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}