New Mexico, the Land of Wealth and Poverty

“Just like wealth is generational, so is poverty.”  

That quote comes from this year’s Kids Count Data Book from New Mexico Voices for Children. It’s a call for immediate steps to address the urgent problem that faces every community in New Mexico, including Santa Fe: Poverty.  

Kids Count came out just as the legislature began a session with unprecedented wealth in the State’s coffers. Unprecedented wealth and generational poverty coming together at the same time. 

Here in Santa Fe, the data is stark: In 2021, 13% of all residents and 20% of the children in Santa Fe County were living in poverty.  

That one statistic runs through every other indicator of our kids’ well-being. Not enough food. Too much housing insecurity. Not enough school attendance. Too many disconnected youth. 

Poverty connects these other harsh realities. Poverty colors the lives of too many Santa Fe kids from the moment they’re born. Too often it shrinks their opportunities and limits their potential. 

Here’s how I think about it.  

Imagine a triangle—an iron triangle—that traps too many families in a vicious feedback cycle. The top of the triangle is poverty. One point of the triangle is educational achievement. The other point is job opportunity. 

Poverty limits our kids’ ability to get a great education. According to the Kid’s Count data, in Santa Fe Public Schools, only 33% of the students are proficient and above in English; only 23% are proficient and above in math; 51% are chronically absent.  

Poor educational performance limits job opportunities. In Santa Fe 7% of families with children have no parent working; 11% of Santa Fe teens are neither attending school nor working. 

Poor job opportunities lead to more poverty.  

It goes on as a vicious cycle, generation after generation. 

To be fair, both the Santa Fe Public Schools and the Governor, among others, are aware of this deep problem and are working on it. Superintendent Chavez, his team and the School Board have taken important and innovative steps to keep kids in school, to give them mentoring, counseling and academic support, all ways to get our kids the education they need.  

To her credit, the Governor has attacked directly two of the points of the triangle. Her investments in education lead the nation. From teachers’ salaries to early childhood education, to free college and more, the Governor has shown remarkable courage and leadership. 

The same goes for her leadership in creating more job opportunities for our young people. Instead of just talking about creating more kinds of jobs for all kinds of people in all parts of our state, we’re seeing it happen. Outdoor recreation is a growing industry, the building trades are booming, and film and digital jobs are thriving at a record-breaking rate. 

But I believe that the most important step still awaits us: We need to attack the top of the triangle. We need to go after poverty directly. 

I believe the program we’ve created in Santa Fe as part of the Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI) is the way to end generational poverty in New Mexico. Our MGI program attacks poverty directly and, at the same time, addresses education and job training. It hits every corner of the triangle. It breaks the cycle of generational poverty. 

Here’s how it works. To qualify, you have to be a family in Santa Fe. You have to be 30 years old or younger and meet an income criterion. And you have to be enrolled in a certificate or degree program at the Santa Fe Community College. 

If you meet those criteria, you qualify for a $400 per month stipend. When some unanticipated financial crisis strikes, that small but predictable stipend helps keep young students with families from dropping out of their Community College program. It could be something like a flat tire, a busted water heater, an emergency medical bill. Whatever it is, too often unanticipated financial emergencies cause a young student to drop out of their Community College program. Too often, they don’t go back. 

We’ve just completed our first pilot project with 100 young families. Every single one of them made it through the whole year.  

That’s how you replace a vicious cycle with a virtuous cycle.  

Thanks to the $400 per month stipend, you have a little cushion for life’s emergencies. You have less stress in your family. Your kids eat better. You feel more secure. You stay in school and get your certificate or your degree. Then you’re ready for a good job, because that’s what your education makes possible. You’re job-ready in any one of the many good paying industries where the Community College has skills development and training programs.  

With that good job comes upward mobility. Your kids see that staying in school and getting job training means you’ve got a better life. One generation teaches the next about opportunity, upward mobility, and real possibilities. 

That’s how you break the iron triangle. 

That’s what we’re doing in Santa Fe.  And we’ve committed $1.5 million of our federal ARPA funds to keep the program going.

What we need is a state-wide version of our Mayors for a Guaranteed Income project.

Poverty isn’t inevitable.  

We can use our wealth to end poverty.