A solution to state’s generational poverty

“Just like wealth is generational, so is poverty.”

That quote comes from this year’s Kids Count Data Book from New Mexico Voices for Children. It’s a call for immediate steps to address the urgent problem that faces Santa Fe and every community in New Mexico: poverty.

The Kids Count report came out just as the Legislature began a session with unprecedented wealth in the state’s coffers. Unprecedented wealth and generational poverty have come together at the same time.

Here in Santa Fe, the data is stark: In 2021, 13% of all residents and 20% of the children in Santa Fe County were living in poverty.

That one statistic runs through every other indicator of our kids’ well-being. Not enough food. Too much housing insecurity. Not enough school attendance. Too many disconnected youth.

Poverty connects these other harsh realities. Poverty colors the lives of too many Santa Fe kids from the moment they’re born. Too often, it shrinks their opportunities and limits their potential. Here’s how I think about it. Imagine a triangle — an iron triangle — that traps too many families in a vicious feedback cycle. The top of the triangle is poverty. One point of the triangle is educational achievement. The other point is job opportunity.

Poverty limits our kids’ ability to get a great education. Despite the hard work and creative efforts of Santa Fe Public Schools teachers and leadership, according to the Kids Count data, only 33% of our students are proficient and above in English; only 23% are proficient and above in math; 51% are chronically absent.

When you don’t have a good education, it’s hard to get a good-paying job. In Santa Fe, 7% of families with children have no parent working; 11% of Santa Fe teens are neither attending school nor working.

When you can’t get a good-paying job, it’s hard to get out of poverty.

It goes on as a vicious cycle, generation after generation.

To be fair, both Santa Fe Public Schools and the governor are aware of this deep problem and are working on it. Superintendent Hilario “Larry” Chavez, his team and the school board have taken important and innovative steps to keep kids in school, to give them mentoring, counseling and academic support, all ways to get our kids the education they need.

To her credit, the governor has attacked directly two of the points of the triangle. Her investments in education lead the nation. The same goes for her leadership in creating more job opportunities and diversifying the New Mexico economy.

Now we need to attack the top of the triangle. We need to go after poverty directly.

I believe the program we’ve created in Santa Fe as part of Mayors for a

Guaranteed Income is the way to end generational poverty in New Mexico. Here’s how it works. To qualify, you have to be a family in Santa Fe. You have to be 30 years old or younger and meet an income criterion. And you have to be enrolled in a certificate or degree program at Santa Fe Community College.

If you meet those criteria, you qualify for a $400-per-month stipend. When some unanticipated financial crisis strikes, that small but predictable stipend helps keep young students with families from dropping out of their community college program. It could be something like a flat tire, a busted water heater or an emergency medical bill. Whatever it is, too often, unanticipated financial emergencies cause a young student to drop out of college. Too often, they don’t go back.

We’ve just completed our first pilot project with 100 young families. Every single one of them made it through the whole year.

That $400-per-month stipend means young families have a little cushion for life’s emergencies. They have less stress in their family. Their kids eat better. They stay in school and get their certificate or degree. Then they’re ready for a good job, because thanks to the community college, they’re job-ready.

That’s how you replace a vicious cycle with a virtuous cycle.

That’s what we’re doing in Santa Fe. And we’ve committed $1.5 million of our federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to keep the program going.

Now what we need is a statewide version of our Mayors for a Guaranteed Income project. Poverty isn’t inevitable.

We can use our wealth to end poverty.