New Mexico’s home visiting puzzle
It has broad support and research behind it, so why can’t the state spend the funds? By John R. Roby / Searchlight NM / Despite strong evidence that home visiting promotes healthy families and children, state officials have diverted millions of dollars from the program in order to fund child care assistance, according to […]
Lawsuit: New Mexico is wrongly denying child care benefits
Attorneys say the state is using secret eligibility rules to block people from aid By Ed Williams and John R. Roby / Searchlight NM / Five New Mexico residents are suing the Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD), claiming the state is effectively cheating eligible low-income families out of money to pay for child […]
Many grandparents raising kids locked out of state aid
With few options, they describe skipping meds, selling possessions By Ed Williams / Searchlight NM ALBUQUERQUE — Joan Marentes knew her career in the Albuquerque Police Department was over the moment a state worker said she was ineligible for public assistance. Assigned to the Crimes Against Children Unit, Marentes was a decorated detective, […]
Risky buildings: New Mexico’s schools run on old infrastructure
DESPITE INVESTING BILLIONS, THE STATE SAYS MOST SCHOOL SYSTEMS ARE OUT OF DATE OR HAZARDOUS By John R. Roby / Searchlight NM New Mexico’s public schools welcomed the state’s 320,000 students back from summer break to buildings characterized by missing fire alarms, nonexistent sprinkler systems, defective emergency doors and leaking roofs. Problems with […]
Years of frustration lie behind landmark school lawsuit
TIRED OF HEARING ‘NO,’ PLAINTIFF SAYS, TAKING NM TO COURT WAS HER ONLY OPTION By Amy Linn / Searchlight NM For Wilhelmina Yazzie, joining the groundbreaking lawsuit against New Mexico wasn’t an easy thing to do. It was the only thing to do. The Navajo mother of three says she’s no different from […]
How the Yazzie case could be a ‘game-changer’ for NM
JUDGE’S LANDMARK RULING IS A CHANCE FOR REFORM, EXPERTS SAY. By Amy Linn / Searchlight NM Behind the recent ruling in the New Mexico school funding lawsuit is nearly a decade of evidence that the state’s public schools are not only failing children, but that children will be “irreparably harmed” if schools aren’t […]
College-focused charter network eyes New Mexico
By Lauren Villagran / Searchlight NM / EL PASO, Texas – The kindergarteners of IDEA Edgemere walked quietly single-file down the hall, their uniforms embroidered with the school logo, left hands behind their backs, right fingers over their lips. Shh. Emblazoned on the wall above their heads, a sign read: “We do whatever it takes.” […]
Charter schools target N.M.’s at-risk students
By Ed Williams / Searchlight NM/ Sara Tafoya never pictured herself as one of New Mexico’s at-risk students. She came from a supportive, college-educated family in Albuquerque, had once earned good grades, and entertained dreams of going to college and becoming a physical therapist. But in her sophomore year, Tafoya “attracted bad situations,” skipping classes […]
Underfunded, undercounted
NEW MEXICO AT RISK IN THE 2020 CENSUS By Christian Marquez / Searchlight NM / You won’t find James Ironmoccasin’s house on Google Maps. To get to his place on the northeastern edge of the Navajo Nation, head east from the 7-2-11 gas station on Highway 64 in Shiprock, take the sixth turn into […]
Native communities harnessing the power of data
By Sara Solovitch / Searchlight NM / Marriages and births. Allies and enemies. Wild game, migration patterns, the number of days of rainfall. For hundreds, if not thousands of years, indigenous peoples maintained a strict count of the events, relationships and surroundings that determined their very survival. Native Americans were among the world’s first counters, […]