New Mexico First released the 2015 New Mexico Progress Report. This highly useful report offers a clear roadmap for progress and uses unique data analytics and visualization to present areas in which New Mexico can improve and challenges that are being overcome. The organization drew on over 25 years of citizen recommendations and ideas to make a fresh and original report with new conclusions not seen in other “policy report cards.”
The report presents a vision for the future, consensus-driven goals for improvement, measures of progress, and challenges that must be overcome. The New Mexico Progress Reportwas designed to broaden the understanding of citizens and lawmakers about the most critical issues facing New Mexico: education, economy, health and water.
This report does not offer every possible performance measure. Instead, its advisory committee selected 35 indicators revealing 15 measures in which we are making progress, 12 for which the state is holding steady, and seven areas where the state’s situation is worsening.
Areas in Which N.M. is Making Progress:
Education: pre-kindergarten enrollment, math proficiency (4th and 8th grade), and science/math college graduates
Health: heart disease deaths, health insurance coverage, child immunization, adult smoking reduction
Economy: household income, unemployment, export-related employment, fiscal & regulatory policy, energy production and future potential
Water: total water use, water use by public water systems, water rights adjudications
Getting Worse:
Healthcare: child hunger, mental healthcare access, healthcare provider access, substance abuse deaths
Economy: poverty
Water: waterway impairment, dams with safety deficiencies
Heather Balas President of New Mexico First notes, “New Mexico is changing, and, in many ways for the better. However, we still have much work to do in all major areas addressed by this report including education, health, economy and water.” The report’s advisory committee chair, Peter Winograd, added, “We see that more young children are receiving quality early childhood education, entrepreneurship and health insurance are on the rise, and we are actively protecting water resources. However, our people are getting poorer, and our need for more mental health and physical health care professionals is profound.”