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INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT EDITION: VOL 1, ISSUE 5
CHILDREN ARE INDEED OUR FUTURE SAY YES TO KIDS CAMPAIGN WINS BIG IN 2022 NM MIDTERM ELECTIONS There have been two consistent issues related to education in New Mexico for more than a decade. 1) New Mexico has either ranked last or very near the bottom in student academic achievement and child well-being in the United States, and 2) Advocates have been asking the Legislature to allow the voters to decide on a constitutional amendment to increase transfers from the Land Grant Permanent Fund from 5% annually to 6.25% to change the first constant. On November 8, 2022, voters overwhelmingly said yes to the second constant. In a landslide victory, New Mexicans said yes to adding $250 million annually to New Mexico’s education coffers. It was an
uphill years-long battle. In the 2022 NM Legislature, advocates from New Mexico Voices for Children, OLÉ, and numerous other organizations and advocacy groups were successful in convincing the legislature to pass a bill allowing the constitutional amendment question to appear on the midterm election ballot. It passed with a 70% margin of victory. Critics were concerned that this additional $250 million wouldn’t do much to change the educational landscape and that it might hurt the stability of the Permanent Fund. Currently, almost 80% (approximately $700 million) of the total fund dividends benefit K-12 education, and some detractors believed no more
money was needed. The fund itself is flush — $26 billion with annual increases of about 11%. Grassroots organizers from across the State made the Say Yes to Kids Campaign sizzle with plain language messages that talked about more pay for teachers, better childcare for parents, mental health investments for students, and more programs for at-risk students. If, as critics of the amendment stated, we needed to protect our “rainy day” fund, advocates pointed to our children’s post-pandemic needs and said, “It’s raining, and we need to make these investments now.” The victory is sweet for sure, but the actual work begins now. We can
stop talking about issue #2 now. Issue #1, however, is still there. We need more money, but we have a problem that money alone cannot solve. It will take all of us to secure our children’s future. We said Yes on November 8th, now it’s time to protect our children and this historic investment. Who’s in?
New Mexico Voices For Children Website
SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND… A Note From the NMBLC Director About Reality Based Testing with Albuquerque Police Department
Cathryn McGill, Founder/Director
On the day before Thanksgiving this year, I spent the morning at the Reality Based Testing Center for the Albuquerque Police Department. My team and I want to better understand the situations that Albuquerque Police Department officers face on a daily basis. The center is used by all APD officers and is, upon request, open to civilians. The APD occupies a portion of the National Guard Armory on Wyoming NE, and once you enter the building, you find yourself in several simulated situations–a bar, a child’s room, a gym, and outside for a traffic stop. We talked with the training officers and went through a presentation about the three levels of “use of force.” For those of us who wanted to, there was an opportunity to be in a potential situation where force might
be necessary to see what our responses would be. Would we use a weapon appropriate to the situation–a baton, a taser, a gun? What would we do when faced with a potential life or death situation?
AND THEN TO BE UNDERSTOOD…
I didn’t choose to participate; I was strictly an observer for the day, and I watched my colleagues in situations with paid role players with fake deadly weapons. Truthfully, it was hard to watch and I tried to channel every bit of author Stephen Covey’s advice, when he wrote, “Seek first to understand and then to be understood…” I get it. If someone is shooting at you or threatening to do so, as an officer, I am faced with a split-second decision to respond—to kill or be killed. I know that
I am not a good candidate for this job. I also know that I want all officers on the force to be held to the highest possible standard—to be trained to expertly defuse a dangerous situation and to check all biases at the door. I also want everyone to live in the situation–both the officer and the suspect. This is a tall order; some might even say it’s naïve. That said, it’s a worthy goal and one that we will only reach by taking Stephen Covey’s advice. Stay tuned to this space for more information about the ongoing conversations with the Albuquerque Police Department about the use of force in the Q. Use the QR code to read about the latest information from the United States Department of Justice about the APD and the Consent Decree.