As members of a New Mexico legislative committee Tuesday afternoon discussed the troubling finding of a recent report — that some 32,000 young people statewide neither work nor go to school — longtime state lawmakers in the room broached the idea that New Mexico’s next governor could revitalize the state’s Children’s Cabinet.
The April Legislative Finance Committee report said that many of the disconnected New Mexicans between ages 16 and 24 are more likely to navigate the criminal justice system, make lower salaries and experience worse health outcomes. Surveyed youth cited housing instability, a lack of skills or training, health conditions and disabilities, low wages and obligations to care for relatives as the main five reasons why they weren’t seeking employment.
At an interim Legislative Health and Human Services Committee meeting in Albuquerque, LFC program evaluators who worked on the April report told lawmakers that the majority of the state’s efforts focus on preventing youth from becoming disconnected rather than reconnecting those who have already dropped out of school or left the workforce.
“These agencies are working in silos and they’ve never had a mandate to work together on this issue,” LFC program evaluator Josh Chaffin told state lawmakers, adding that the report’s recommended goal of reconnecting 3,200 youth statewide to schooling or the workforce is more than feasible.
In the full report, Chaffin and his colleagues wrote that while New Mexico has a Children’s Cabinet that brings together agency heads from several state departments to discuss child well-being policies and priorities, it’s primarily focused on early childhood, public schools and family stability and it “does not explicitly target or organize services around disconnected youth ages 16 to 24.”
Committee Vice Chair Sen. Linda López (D-Albuquerque), who first assumed office in the late 1990s, said the report was a “validation” of what many New Mexicans have seen anecdotally.
“I know when this came out in the news, here’s a validation of what many of us have known over the years. Here it is in black and white,” she said during the committee hearing.
She added that she has seen the state’s Children’s Cabinet — which was established under Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson as a conglomeration of state agency heads who would review and offer policy recommendations regarding the state’s children — vary in effectiveness. Former Republican Gov. Susana Martinez effectively dismantled it, López said.
“So we had eight years of nothing,” she said of Martinez’s tenure, adding that when a new governor takes office next year, state lawmakers could “get the fire lit” under that person to assemble a strong Children’s Cabinet and work toward solving the disconnected youth issue.
Rep. Elizabeth “Liz” Thomson (D-Albuquerque) had the last word on the topic and admonished her colleagues to pursue the matter regardless of who wins the Nov. 3 general election.
Democratic nominee and former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is set to face Republican nominee and former Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull in the November election. Former longtime Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima is running for the office as an independent.
“Let’s all commit to encouraging the next governor to have a really robust Children’s Cabinet,” she said.
