The two-year grant will support news coverage “directed toward child well-being, policy change, and a healthy, just New Mexico."

Martinez will exit as one of the nation’s least-popular governors, with even the Republican who seeks to succeed her saying “New Mexico is in a crisis moment.”

Ushered into office on a conservative wave that swept statehouses around the country, Martinez espoused classic Republican views on small government and fiscal conservatism. Eight years on, she can truthfully say she has kept state government lean.

Searchlight examined eight education-related claims and promises Martinez made during her two successful campaigns for governor, using publicly available data to learn whether New Mexico has managed to move the needle since then.

A look at the Martinez appointees who head the state's three most important agencies for child well-being.

At least 44 states have introduced formal protocols or programs to boost oversight and monitoring of psychotropic drug use by children. Yet while other states work to limit psychiatric drugs, 30,000 NM children have prescriptions.

Albuquerque doctor is under investigation in 36 patient deaths.

We asked five national experts in child well-being, health, education and policy to write short essays in response to recent stories we have covered. Here's what they had to say.

If any one person has the power to determine the fate of New Mexico’s next generation, it is the next governor.