How does a state climb off the bottom rung in measures of child well-being? Can New Mexico take a cue and move up a few notches itself, by next year?
New Mexico’s Children
30 Million Words
Pensacola, Fla., became one of the country’s first cities to dub itself an “Early Learning City.” With leadership from the business community, it linked up with the University of Chicago’s Thirty Million Words project to educate new parents on how to build their child’s brain — a project that could hold lessons for New Mexico.
Land commissioner: Most candidates decline to make their case
We asked the five land commissioner candidates how they would steward our public trust lands and use their office to improve conditions for New Mexico’s children. Two responded.
Growing a governor
We asked the four gubernatorial candidates about their childhoods, to understand how their formative years shaped their thinking about what we regard as the most critical issue confronting New Mexico.
Searchlight honored for series on New Mexico’s children
New Mexico Voices for Children awards ‘Raising New Mexico’ project.
A conversation about treatment foster care
Ed Williams speaks with Radio Cafe’s Mary-Charlotte Domandi about his investigation into NM’s treatment foster care system.
Chalk, books and metal detectors: A conversation about the ‘prisonization’ of schools
UNM Law Professor Maryam Ahranjani proposes a sensible national response to the Parkland, Fla., mass shooting.
Childhood trauma, lifelong harm
On her third day alone in the house, 7-year-old Linda Fritts slept in her safe place in the closet. She arranged the shelves and fashioned a nest for herself atop a chest of drawers. “I would take stuffed animals in there and my books in there,” she says now. She read by flashlight, Nancy Drew or The Boxcar […]
The trouble with No. 49
For almost 30 years, New Mexico has maintained an iron grip on the bottom rung of key rankings. Why is it that even when the state makes improvements in education, health care or the economy, we barely budge? Each year, the Annie E. Casey Foundation ranks the 50 states on issues of child well-being. The […]


