{"id":581750,"date":"2018-05-17T13:35:50","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T19:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=581750"},"modified":"2018-05-18T14:45:29","modified_gmt":"2018-05-18T20:45:29","slug":"qa-apodaca-says-investing-in-nm-will-improve-education-kids-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/05\/qa-apodaca-says-investing-in-nm-will-improve-education-kids-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&#038;A: Apodaca says investing in NM will improve education, kids\u2019 lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_564419\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-564419\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Apodaca-Jeff-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"Jeff Apodaca\" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Apodaca-Jeff-771x514.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Apodaca-Jeff-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Apodaca-Jeff-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Apodaca-Jeff.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Apodaca<\/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.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apo18.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jeff Apodaca<\/a>\u00a0of Albuquerque is a former media executive and is one of three candidates seeking the Democratic nomination. 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 an Apodaca administration? And what is your plan for offering early childhood care and education in rural New Mexico, where they often lack infrastructure and access to skilled early childhood educators?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><b>Jeff Apodaca:<\/b>\u00a0Here\u2019s our game plan. Over 60 percent of New Mexican kids have no early childhood education, so we\u2019re proposing that we fund universal preschool \u2014 both private and public. We don\u2019t want to put 700 private preschools out of business. I don\u2019t want the state starting a preschool program. I think there are plenty of models out there; I just want to make sure we have funding for it. We also know that we have to get to families, so we have early family intervention. We want to make sure that we\u2019re reaching families from birth to 20.<\/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\/14\/qa-apodaca-says-investing-in-nm-will-improve-education-kids-lives\/\" 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>There\u2019s already programs out there. You look at an organization like\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/pbjfamilyservices.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PB&amp;J<\/a>, and it\u2019s a great organization. What\u2019s their problem? They reach 7,000 kids when they should be reaching 70,000 kids. So our proposal is, let\u2019s move $225 million from the top of the (Public Education Department) that don\u2019t work or that we don\u2019t need back down into the community.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: One thing I\u2019d like to tease out here, though, is that you\u2019re talking about small community programs. How do you get from 7,000 to 70,000? That\u2019s like a school system.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Apodaca: I\u2019m just giving an example. If you go into every community, there is an organization or some program that is already doing that, they\u2019re just not getting funded enough. Do we have all the details worked out right now? No. Do I want to start another government program and expand our public school system? I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the answer. I think the answer is working with the communities, working with nonprofits and organizations that know the community better than anybody else \u2014 both in the rural communities and cities like Alburquerque. How can we fund programs, nonprofit, government and, yes, even the private sector? How can we bring them all together to make sure that every child has early family intervention and early childhood education? Then we can fund 3- to 4-year-old programs around the state, and preschool for all.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: How does that work for a small community like Wagon Mound?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Apodaca: We have to work with programs that we know work, and with community leaders. Start those programs with nonprofit and state funding, and launch them in little communities like Raton, and Wagon Mound and Mora. There\u2019s always a local library or community center or school that we can use. I don\u2019t think the state needs to come up with a full-blown program. I think that\u2019s one of our biggest problems in the Education Department: we\u2019re trying to educate our kids from the top down. I happen to believe our government should give them funding and opportunities, but let\u2019s allow our local communities to educate our kids.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: You\u2019ve talked about using 5 percent of the Land Grant Permanent Fund to help fund some of some of these early childhood initiatives. There\u2019s been a plan for the last eight years to do 1 percent of the Land Grant, and they can\u2019t get that through the Legislature. How would you do it?<\/strong><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Apodaca: I think you\u2019re misunderstanding me. What I\u2019ve said is I\u2019d invest 5 percent of our $23 billion \u2014 the Land Grant fund is $17 billion \u2014 back into New Mexico. Now, I\u2019ve never said I was going to use those monies for early childhood education. We\u2019re going to invest that into economic development and into businesses and communities.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what I\u2019ve been talking about \u2014 making a return on our investments.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: I\u2019d love to stop you there so I can understand this. You would invest them, not draw down the fund?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Apodaca: Exactly. It\u2019s my opponents that are using the verbiage \u201cdraw down, raid, take out.\u201d What I\u2019ve said is we\u2019re going to invest that money back into New Mexico. That $23 billion is being invested in California and Oklahoma. They literally buy Oklahoma state bonds with it at 1.8 percent. They\u2019re investing in Wall Street and agriculture overseas. By state Constitution, we have to invest those funds, and there\u2019s rules about how you invest. Every return we make in those investments goes back into the funds. I think my opponents don\u2019t understand how the funds can be invested, and I think that\u2019s why they\u2019re thinking we have to make constitutional change.<\/p>\n<p>However, I would absolutely sign a bill if they put it on my desk to take an extra half a percent or a percent out of the Land Grant to fund early childhood education. But I\u2019m not gonna sit around as governor and wait four years while everybody battles John Arthur Smith over whether to take any money out of that fund.<\/p>\n<p>I believe we have found over $225 million within PED that we can move back into our communities. I will earmark $165 million of that into these early childhood programs. Then I believe the nonprofit world wants to come and work with us, and invest with us. I believe there\u2019s enough money there that we can do it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: So where exactly are all these millions of dollars being wasted at PED? If you talk to the teachers and school districts, they all say they don\u2019t have enough money. I can\u2019t imagine they\u2019re wasting that much money at central office in Santa Fe.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Apodaca: I can tell you right now that out of a $3.2 billion budget, we found almost $225 million, or 8 percent of PED\u2019s budget, that doesn\u2019t get into the classroom. So I agree with you 100 percent that when you talk to teachers, you talk to principals, when you talk to the community, money\u2019s not getting there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: Can you list some of the things you feel are being wasted in administration?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Apodaca: I see things like the PARCC test, Pearson. We look at consulting fees. The last two years they clawed back $30 million out of PED that didn\u2019t get used. Why was that? We think there\u2019s enough money, we just think it\u2019s being directed in the wrong direction. If you look back 40 years, we used to spend 6 percent more of our education budget in the classroom than we do today. I have twin boys that are 10, and I\u2019m living what I see. We don\u2019t pay our teachers enough money, we don\u2019t give enough authority to our principals and superintendents.<\/p>\n<p>Everybody today is saying there\u2019s no money (to fund education). We\u2019ve got to overtax. We\u2019ve got to cut programs. At the same time our (permanent) funds have grown almost $2 billion in the last year. We have to start investing in opportunities. And by creating more jobs, we create more tax revenue for our state.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m basically a private sector media executive that has put private-public partnerships together. We invest everything outside of our state. We literally spend $240 million a year \u2014 between our cities, our counties and our state \u2014 trying to bring outside companies to come here to have a grand slam. We need to hit a bunch of singles, we don\u2019t need to hit a grand slam. And that\u2019s basically investing in New Mexico industries and New Mexico businesses.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: I think that\u2019s admirable. We should be investing in our own state. But how do you put in the safeguards so that you don\u2019t create self-dealing? We have a big history of that in New Mexico.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Apodaca: You do it through the community bank system that\u2019s already regulated. It\u2019s already regulated by independent auditors, it\u2019s already regulated by the State Investment Council.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: The Trump administration is looking at cutting the SNAP program. They\u2019re looking at cutting back on Medicaid. How would you deal with something like that as governor, when those programs are used very heavily by many families here in New Mexico?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Apodaca: Twenty-five percent of our families live in poverty, 52 percent of our families live on some type of government assistance. As governor, I will fight and protect our federal budgets and our matching budgets as much as I can. That\u2019s up to our U.S. senators and our Congress people. By tapping two Congress people (to run for governor), literally leaving their seat and their seniority, it\u2019s actually hurting the state of New Mexico and hurting programs just like that. But again, here we are, talking about doomsday, when there\u2019s no doomsday yet, and we have time. We have to grow revenues in our state. That means job creation. The only person talking about creating 225,000 new jobs is me. Now, they\u2019re gonna say we\u2019ve got to invest in the economy. OK. How?<\/p>\n<p>I did a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apo18.com\/turnaround-tuesdays\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Turnaround Tuesday<\/a>\u00a0(last) week where we talked about it. You start investing into agriculture, 20,000-30,000 new jobs. You start investing into technology \u2014 and I\u2019m talking about technologies that are created here today, that leave our state every day: cyber security, aerospace, nuclear, photonics, biotechnology, 3D imaging. These are industries we actually created in New Mexico and have allowed to leave our state and create jobs outside our state.<\/p>\n<p>Are you aware that the University of New Mexico is one of the top biotechnology research institutions in the country? I\u2019m a cancer survivor of 38 years. My wife and I have raised some money for them. We\u2019re very involved with them, so I know some of this stuff. I sit on two boards over there. In the last 10 years, we\u2019ve produced over 400 patents in biotechnology research, in Alzheimer\u2019s and cancer research. Fifty of those are now being commercialized into companies: only eight in the state of New Mexico. Now why did those 42 companies leave? One, because they needed investment funds. The investment funds weren\u2019t in the state. But we have $23 billion. The next was they needed infrastructure to grow their companies. We don\u2019t invest in infrastructure. But we have all this capital outlay that we invest in buildings that go unused. Then they need a trained workforce. We\u2019re not training our college kids for those jobs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: I\u2019d like you to talk about another issue I think is a huge one in New Mexico, and that\u2019s the problems poverty creates: adverse childhood experiences. It\u2019s one of the reasons our students don\u2019t do well in school, can\u2019t keep jobs, and end up in the criminal justice system. Do you think some of the changes being made at the Children Youth and Families Department are adequate? Would you do something differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Apodaca: The first thing I would do is bring in leadership within that department that understands our rural communities, that understands what we\u2019re going through. Nothing against Monique Jacobson, she\u2019s a friend of mine. I don\u2019t know if she\u2019s doing a good job. All I know is I\u2019ve seen as many as 25 percent of CYFD open vacancies. We\u2019re not funding those programs enough. And bottom line is, with the poverty we have and the rural communities we have, it\u2019s gonna cost us a little more money until we can raise those communities up.<\/p>\n<p>I have heard as many as 300 to 400 positions go unfilled at CYFD. There\u2019s stress, and state employees are beat down and looked down upon. As governor, I\u2019m going to bring in leadership \u2014 and I\u2019ve said this across the board \u2014 I\u2019m going to bring in leadership that understands the field, that comes from the field and understands what we need to do from the bottom up, from the community up.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NMID: Is there anything you\u2019d like to say in closing about your plan for making New Mexico a better place to raise a family?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Apodaca: I\u2019m not running for governor because I want a political career at the age of 56. I\u2019m not running for governor because my father was governor, like my opponents say. And I\u2019m definitely not running for governor because it\u2019s my turn. I\u2019m running for governor because I think it\u2019s New Mexico\u2019s turn. I think it\u2019s our turn to start investing in ourselves. We sit on $23 billion \u2014 and I know we\u2019re not sitting on it. We invest those funds and we live off the interest. I\u2019m OK with that. All we\u2019re saying is let\u2019s invest $1.2 billion of that into New Mexico, into industries, into technologies, and grow our economy. Our state\u2019s at a crossroads. It\u2019s either do something completely different and change our state, start investing in our state, so our businesses and New Mexicans stay here.<\/p>\n<p><em>See Apodaca\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apo18.com\/education-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">education<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apo18.com\/plan-turn-around-new-mexico\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">economic<\/a>\u00a0plans.<\/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 Jeff Apodaca thinks about the issues of early childhood, child wellbeing and education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":564419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,431],"tags":[2238,234,3587,107],"class_list":["post-581750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-qa","tag-2018-election","tag-children","tag-jeff-apodaca","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581750","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=581750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}