Growing the early childhood education permanent fund
After years of advocating for sustainable revenue sources for early childhood education, we are encouraged by the prospect of the creation of a $1 billion (within three fiscal years) of a permanent early childhood fund (“New permanent fund proposed for early childhood education,” Aug. 29).
The board of directors of CHI St. Joseph’s Children was very pleased to learn about Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s proposal, presented to the Legislative Finance Committee by New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Olivia Padilla-Jackson, to create an early childhood permanent fund.
After nine years of advocating for a sustainable revenue source for funding early childhood programs, we are very encouraged by Gov. Lujan Grisham’s proposal and the support of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. John Arthur Smith.
As presented by Padilla-Jackson, creating a new early childhood permanent fund “can establish a dedicated revenue stream over time for this crucial investment in New Mexico’s children. Growing the early childhood education permanent fund to $1 billion over the next three years could, for example, potentially generate $50 million per year for early childhood purposes.”
The unmet need for early childhood programs in New Mexico is approximately $400 million per year for home visiting, high quality pre-K, high quality child care, professional workforce development and enhanced referral services for children.
For too many years, the children of New Mexico have ranked at or near bottom for well-being outcomes, sinking to the worst out of 50 states for children living in hunger, poverty and suffering adverse childhood experiences. The population left out of historical funding formulas are the children from prenatal to 4 years old, when the most brain development takes place.
This newly created fund would be a step in the right direction as we work toward achieving full, comprehensive funding.
In years past, CHI St. Joseph’s Children has promoted a constitutional amendment to make 1 percent of the Land Grant Permanent Fund available for early childhood programs. This would generate approximately $200 million per year, half the funding needed to provide services to fully address the unmet need. It is our hope that in the near future, enough funding sources will have been dedicated to the urgent crisis that the children of New Mexico are experiencing.
We also congratulate legislators from both sides of the aisle who have embraced and endorsed home visiting as an important element in creating the systemic change that will eventually bring our children out of poverty and hunger and lower the number of adverse childhood experiences.
Some legislators have expressed a concern that if the new fund is created it could be subject to future raids. The concern is valid. That’s why we support adequate safeguards to ensure that this fund is used as intended — for the education of young children from prenatal to 4 years old.
CHI St. Joseph’s Children operates home visiting programs and referral services paid for by private funds. We endorse the creation of the early childhood permanent fund and ask all New Mexicans to come together to take this important step in the right direction. United, we can solve the problems of our state; we can bring our children out of poverty and hunger into a future of health and well-being.