For over a decade, the U.S. state of New Mexico has ranked worst or second-to-worse for child wellbeing compared to the rest of the country. This ranking has been based on 16 different indicators, including looking at the percentage of children living in poverty, or without full health insurance, or without accessing proper schooling.
Now, however, these numbers are finally starting to shift.
And experts are attributing that success to the state's massive investment in providing free childcare for most families!Sign the petition to celebrate this success, and to urge other U.S. states to follow suit!In 2022, New Mexico started a
first-of-its kind project in the United States: making childcare free for most families in its state. If a family earned less than 400% of the federal poverty level, they would qualify for this assistance - and more than half of families in New Mexico did. Previously, a whopping
80% of a family's income could end up going to childcare for just two kids.
Now however, kids have become able to more easily access the care they needed, parents are able to go to work (without stressing about the ever-increasing price of childcare), and caregivers themselves are able to earn more livable wages!
Everybody wins.In fact, since New Mexico implemented its free childcare policy,
120,000 people were raised out of poverty.Elizabeth Groginsky, a cabinet secretary in New Mexico, points out that research by James Heckman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, shows that "every dollar spent on high-quality, birth-to-five programs for disadvantaged children
can deliver a 13% per annum return on investment." This can come "from better education and health outcomes for children, employment gains for parents, greater economic productivity and reduced spending on healthcare and crime."
No other U.S. state has done something like this before, and they're missing out. Every child - and every parent, and every childcare worker - could benefit from programs like this, throughout the nation. Sign the petition to urge other U.S. states to implement free childcare for working-class families!