Think New Mexico has just released a new report proposing a ten-point plan with 20 separate legislative recommendations to address the urgent crisis of New Mexico’s health care worker shortage! Click here to read more about the reforms we’re proposing.
If you like what you read and you’d like to be part of this effort to revitalize public schools in New Mexico, please contact your legislators and the governor and urge them to enact these reforms during the upcoming 2025 legislative session!
We are excited to introduce our three newest staff members!
Katie Gutierrez is Think New Mexico’s Tax, Budget, and Economic Development Reform Director. Katie is from San Antonito, New Mexico, where her family has been farming for 12 generations. A PhD candidate in Economics at the University of New Mexico, she studies the impact of taxes and policy changes on people’s health and well-being, with a focus on reducing health disparities. Katie is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar alumna, a UNM Center for Social Policy alumna, and a former organizer with the United Graduate workers of UNM.
Marcus P. Lujan is Think New Mexico’s new Field Director. Marcus was born and raised in Santa Fe, where his family has lived for many generations. He served as his Class President at St. Michael’s High School, and is now an active member of the St. Michael’s Alumni Association. Marcus graduated with Honors from New Mexico State University, earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Government.
Dr. Alfredo Vigil, is Think New Mexico’s Healthcare Reform Director. Alfredo served as New Mexico Secretary of Health under Governor Bill Richardson. He grew up in Los Alamos and earned his B.S. and M.D. from the University of New Mexico. During his career, Alfredo has been a physician in private practice, served as the medical director of the Questa Health Center, Chief of Staff of Holy Cross Hospital in Taos, and CEO of El Centro Family Health in Espanola, as well as Board Chair of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
In 2024, Think New Mexico is celebrating its first quarter-century! Check out our latest annual report for for a timeline of the results we have achieved through the years as well as updates on our policy reform initiatives. Click here to download the annual report.
During the 2024 legislative session, 54 education-related bills were introduced, just four of which made it through the process and were signed into law. One of those bills was Senate Bill 137, which enacted the reforms proposed in Think New Mexico’s Education Roadmap report to upgrade the training and transparency of the state’s school boards. Read more about this reform.
While we were unsuccessful in getting a one-semester course in financial literacy included in the high school graduation requirements for all students, we are now reaching out to each of New Mexico’s 89 school districts and urging them to adopt financial literacy as one of the two graduation requirements that they have to establish at the local level. We are joined in this effort by a broad-based and growing coalition.
In addition, the 2024 capital outlay bill included an additional $1 million for the Strategic Water Reserve, the water management tool that Think New Mexico successfully championed nearly two decades ago to keep our rives running to prevent conflicts over endangered species and interstate river compacts. The 2024-2025 budget also extended the timeline for the $7,500,000 appropriation to the Strategic Water Reserve from last year, allowing it to be expended through 2028. Read more about this reform.
The 2024 legislative session is underway, and we are working to enact more of the potentially transformative education reforms we proposed in our 2022 policy report, A Roadmap for Rethinking Public Education in New Mexico. Here are brief summaries of the bills we are currently working on, with links to our Action Center so you can easily contact your legislators and the governor about any of them:
- Upgrade the training and transparency of local school boards. We are advocating for Senate Bill 137, which would upgrade the training and transparency requirements of local school boards. A growing body of research has found that the decisions and actions of local school boards can positively impact the learning environment when school boards are focused on elevating student achievement. Read more about this reform and email your legislators and the governor to urge them to pass it!
- Reduce elementary school classes sizes. We are supporting House Bill 227 to phase in a cap of 20 students in grades K-6, one grade per year over six years. Smaller class sizes enhance the positive impacts of extended learning time by allowing teachers to spend more time with each student and provide more personalized instruction. They also reduce teacher stress and burnout, keeping more good teachers in the profession. Read more about this reform and email your legislators and the governor to urge them to pass it!
- Make personal finance a high school graduation requirement. Today, only 11% of students complete this course, but every student needs to learn essential skills like how to make a budget, open a bank account, save and invest for their futures, and avoid high-cost debt. We are urging lawmakers to include a one-semester class in financial literacy in the high school graduation requirements. Read more about this reform and email your legislators and the governor about it!
- Ensure high-quality teacher preparation programs. We are advocating for House Bill 256, which would set high standards for the state’s public colleges of education. The number of people completing traditional teacher training programs at New Mexico’s colleges of education has fallen by 75% over the past decade, and graduates report that the programs too often emphasize abstract theory over the practical, skills-based learning that is most valuable to future teachers. House Bill 256 would convert the final year of a four-year program into a teacher residency, a paid year-long experience in a classroom teaching alongside a master teacher. It would also ensure that they are offering evidence-based curricula that reflects the current best practices in areas like math and reading instruction. Read more about this reform and email your legislators and the governor to urge them to pass it!
- Improve school principal pay and training. Principal quality is the second most most important factor after teacher quality in student success, because good principals are the key to recruiting and retaining good teachers. Unfortunately, New Mexico is one of the ten worst states for principal retention, with principals remaining in their jobs for less than four years on average. Among the main reasons why principals leave their jobs are inadequate preparation and low salaries. House Bill 22 would ensure that incoming principals have access to residencies, where they have the opportunity to shadow an experienced principal for a year. It would also improve principal pay. Read more about this reform and email your legislators and the governor about it!
- Fund the Strategic Water Reserve. The Strategic Water Reserve is an innovative water management tool that Think New Mexico proposed and won passage of in 2005. It allows the state to buy and lease water rights to help keep our rivers flowing to meet the needs of endangered species and the state’s water delivery obligations under interstate compacts. Read more about this reform and email your legislators and the governor to ask them to fully fund it!
On January 1, 2024, Think New Mexico marked 25 years since its founding.
We are proud of the track record of results that Think New Mexico has delivered for New Mexicans in our first quarter century, from repealing the food tax to ending predatory lending to making full-day kindergarten accessible to every child in the state. We have some exciting plans in the works to magnify our impact over the next quarter century, and we look forward to sharing more information about them throughout 2024.
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Think New Mexico is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization. Our EIN is 31-1611995. Financials and more information is available on our transparency page.
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