25 votes

Governor: New Mexico to provide universal access to child care

Posted by skybrian
Tags: politics.usa, usa.nm, government.local, democratic party, michelle lujan grisham, policy.social, childcare, family, children, author.esteban candelaria, author.daniel j chacon, source.santafenewmexican
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/governor-new-mexico-to-provide-universal-access-to-child-care/article_1a991c8e-70ed-45e9-bbdb-9b5e602d625a.html

Link information

This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.

Authors
Matt Dahlseid/The New Mexican, Daniel Chacon, Esteban Candelaria
Published
Sep 9 2025
Word count
42 words

4 comments

  1. wervenyt
    Link
    New Mexico is an odd state. We have excellent universities and a remarkable number of one-in-a-million experts in arts and science, with some truly abysmal public schooling and a median household...

    New Mexico is an odd state. We have excellent universities and a remarkable number of one-in-a-million experts in arts and science, with some truly abysmal public schooling and a median household income that comes close to the federal poverty lines. So much of the state is rural, and the 'urban' parts are mostly rural infill, and yet our local politics do not resemble the states with those shared features. Almost everyone is carbound, but because of the climate, cars are significantly less of a financial burden than elsewhere. Addictions and psychotic disorders are abundant. Guns are prevalent, but almost nobody likes the police beyond the ones they know personally. Domestic violence is normalized, and the tradition of policing it with mob violence is alive and well.

    Most people who grow up here don't like it. They don't recognize that living in a place with access to the comforts of "the developed world", where you can make your house into an art project, where people raised in indigenous cultures can chat to Vietnamese immigrants under the shade of latillas built by the descendants of Spanish settlers about quantum physics, is a precious thing. Most of them who graduate high school and make it to college move away. That especially includes the kind of people who specialize in early childhood and education. Everyone's struggling so hard already, and the implicit assumption is that somehow every new child has an abuela happy and able to care for them while their parents work. When you grew up with classmates who came in to school bruised and bloodied, and whose experience with CYFD (our child protective services) amounted to "they showed up, mom/dad said everything was fine, and left", and teachers are making $40k/year, it's hard to blame them.

    How will this be funded? Ehh, there are some pressures the state can put against the oil and gas industry, there are some businesses who've invested in infrastructure more recently who are ripe to pay back some debt to the community, but it will be impressive if the funding pulls through. The riskier issue is really the details. People here, whether rightfully or otherwise, are extremely possessive of "their kids", very tax-shy, and leery of the government. Our governor ran the covid lockdowns better than any other, as far as I'm concerned. Her office issued clear escalatory and deescalatory measures, set timelines, insisted that the only policing be done regarding indoor businesses, provided very legible and actionable outbreak reports, and even with that, the pandemic skeptics throw mud on Lujan Grisham's name as a tyrant and nanny state proponent. If things don't go very well, backlash could destroy a lot of the good this administration has done here.

    But if they do, then we might one day not have the most private prisons in the country, and our schools might actually be graded on success rather than how many teens didn't drop out this year.

    10 votes
  2. [2]
    skybrian
    Link
    From the article: … … …

    From the article:

    Starting Nov. 1, New Mexico will become the first state in the nation to offer no-cost child care to every family, regardless of income.

    …

    The Early Childhood Education and Care Department, which has a nearly $1 billion budget, spends about $463 million annually for child care assistance. The expansion would cost an additional $120 million a year, which the governor plans to request during next year’s 30-day session to “fully implement universal childcare,” Michael Coleman, the governor’s chief spokesman, wrote in an email.

    Currently, the state’s child care assistance program covers the cost of care for families with incomes at or below 400% of the federal poverty level, or about $106,600 for a family of three. Under the new expansion, implemented through state regulation changes but dependent on further funding from the Legislature, there will be no income limits for a family’s eligibility.

    …

    According to data from the state Early Childhood Education and Care Department, 21,094 children up to age 5 were receiving the subsidy as of July, marking 42.6% of the state’s total child care capacity — but just 16.2% of the total population of children in that age range in the state.

    The state will also provide additional funding to providers that bolster entry-level early childhood workers’ pay to between $18 and $21 per hour and keep their doors open for at least 10 hours a day, five days a week.

    …

    In addition to asking for an additional $120 million to fully implement universal child care, the early childhood department will ask for a one-time appropriation of $20 million for construction costs to help increase provider capacity.

    That total price tag might not be sustainable, said Sen. George Muñoz, a Gallup Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance Committee.

    “I don’t know how they’re going to explain that to people when they don’t have the money to pay for everyone’s child care,” he said.

    According to the Governor’s Office, the initiative would draw from multiple revenue streams, including the Early Childhood Education and Care Fund.

    “We’re nine months into [the Trump] administration, and we’ve got some big changes coming,” Muñoz said, referring to federal funding cuts.

    “We only have $400 million in new money [projected for the upcoming fiscal year], so how are we going to account for all of this?” he asked.

    Muñoz also questioned whether New Mexico has the capacity to provide universal child care.

    While the state has continued to expand eligibility, child care system capacity declined by 3% between fall 2019 and spring 2023, primarily due to a loss of registered home-based providers, according to the Cradle to Career Policy Institute at the University of New Mexico.

    3 votes
    1. teaearlgraycold
      Link Parent
      I think with all of the people this policy will attract they might not struggle for funding.

      That total price tag might not be sustainable

      I think with all of the people this policy will attract they might not struggle for funding.

      1 vote
  3. MimicSquid
    Link
    Ensuring that child care is available to all makes sense on a variety of levels. It eliminates means testing, which means you don't need the layer of bureaucracy required to review eligibility....

    Ensuring that child care is available to all makes sense on a variety of levels.

    • It eliminates means testing, which means you don't need the layer of bureaucracy required to review eligibility. This saves something, but how much?
    • It means that more people are available for the workforce, as the cost of childcare can often encourage one parent to stay home rather than dedicate a significant chunk of one person's salary to childcare.
    • It ensures that all children have care. Some people are in situations where they have to just leave their kid at home and go to work, or in other situations where there's no one available to look after the kid they have to find other solutions which aren't beneficial for anyone, like having the kid hang out at their place of work.

    The main question is cost. This isn't an area where you can easily say that this is a revenue-neutral proposal. It's good for the economy, and good for families. How much? Who knows? Will this pay for itself through increased economic activity? Will the overall benefit to the economy from a larger workforce pay for itself? It's a complex situation.

    That said, I think it's the right choice but that's not based on hard numbers.

    3 votes