Governor holds inaugural early childhood summit

Jul. 24—Between legislative appropriations and new money flowing from the state's Land Grant Permanent Fund, New Mexico has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in early childhood programs in recent years.

Now, it's time to figure out where to go from here.

Over 100 lawmakers, officials, business owners and tribal leaders packed into Santa Fe's Bishop's Lodge on Wednesday for an inaugural early childhood summit hosted by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham aimed at answering that question.

While Lujan Grisham laid out her vision for New Mexico's early childhood network — one which makes quality early child care and education centers universally available to families and their specific needs and supports the field's workforce — the purpose of the summit, she told The New Mexican, was to crowdsource strategies for how to get there.

"We should provide more parent choice and, actually, providers would like more choices because it [incentivizes] their workforce," she said. "... So this group is going to give us a bunch of ideas."

Oftentimes, Lujan Grisham said, parents with children of different ages find themselves enrolling in multiple services for their children — from child care to pre-K to kindergarten. That means they're often running around trying to get each child where they need to be.

That was the situation Angie Munguia, a mother of four who is originally from Mexico City and lives in Santa Fe, found herself in years ago. Each morning, she had to drive two kids to César Chávez Elementary School, her oldest to Mandela International Magnet School, then her youngest back to Santa Fe Community College for a Head Start program.

Her youngest also needed speech therapy — a service she struggled to find for him during the pandemic.

"It was challenging, stressful," Munguia said. "I mean, there's no choice. So I have to do it every single day, and just be strong and stand for them."

To alleviate such problems, Lujan Grisham said she aims to get more creative in setting up more child care services in communities, whether it's establishing pre-K programs on or near school grounds or building child care centers on existing business campuses.

"We have to create these spaces. I think there are better segues to do that, that don't minimize private-sector choice but maximize public investments," Lujan Grisham said.

During her opening remarks, Early Childhood Education and Care Department Cabinet Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky said New Mexico now has "the best-resourced early childhood system in the nation" and offered some projections on where the state's recent investments will take it.

For example, in fiscal year 2021, New Mexico served some 46,200 children statewide, according to a chart Groginsky showed summit attendees. By fiscal year 2027, the state expects to be serving some 99,200.

Roughly 38,600 of those are projected to be enrolled in child care, while roughly 25,700 are projected to be enrolled in pre-K programs. Some of the others will be enrolled in home visiting and early intervention programs.

And from fiscal years 2025 to 2027, the department expects to grow its workforce from about 16,800 to over 19,000.

Esteban Candelaria is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. He covers child welfare and the state Children, Youth and Families Department. Learn more about Report for America at reportforamerica.org.