FINANCIALS & TRANSPARENCY
END PREDATORY LENDING
FOOD TAX REPEAL
STRATEGIC WATER RESERVE
LOTTERY REFORM
INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDING REFORM
HEALTH CARE AFFORDABILITY
RETHINK THE PRC
TITLE INSURANCE REFORM
ADDRESSING THE JOBS CRISIS
INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT ACCOUNTS
END PAY TO PLAY CORRUPTION
TIME & CALENDAR
IMPROVE TEACHER TRAINING
PRINCIPAL PAY & TRAINING
COLLEGES OF EDUCATION
RELEVANT & RIGOROUS CURRICULUM
SMALLER SCHOOLS
DEPOLITICIZE STUDENT ASSESSMENTS
MAXIMIZE DOLLARS TO THE CLASSROOM
PAST INTERN BIOS
Mandi Torrez, 2020 Teacher of the Year, Joins Think New Mexico
We are delighted to welcome Mandi Torrez at Think New Mexico's new Education Reform Director!
Mandi is New Mexico's 2020 Teacher of the Year. She has a decade of experience teaching third and fourth grade in the Bernalillo Public Schools, and she was also recognized as that district's 2019 Teacher of the Year. Mandi holds an undergraduate degree in Journalism and a Master's in Integrated Elementary and Special Education. Before becoming a teacher, she worked at the Farmington Daily Times as the News Editor and as Copy Editor.
Prior to joining Think New Mexico, Mandi served as Teacher Liaison at the Public Education Department, and she has experience advocating at the state legislature as a New Mexico Senior Policy Fellow with Teach Plus, a policy and leadership training network for teachers.
We are excited that Mandi will be leading Think New Mexico's major new effort to rethink New Mexico's public schools and lift up student performance and outcomes, particularly for the at-risk children who make up nearly three out of four students in our schools. Read a recent Albuquerque Journal editorial about our proposed reforms.
Our New Project: A Roadmap for Rethinking New Mexico's Public Schools
Think New Mexico has just released a new report laying out a sweeping ten point plan with 30 separate legislative recommendations to improve the performance of New Mexico's struggling public education system, which was ranked last in the nation for quality by five separate evaluations by Education Week, Forbes, Kids Count, WalletHub, and U.S. News and World Report.
This report, several years in the making, differs from Think New Mexico's past policy initiatives, which have generally focused on a single core reform, like repealing the food tax or ending predatory lending.
The reason for this different approach is that the solutions needed to improve our public schools are interlinked. For example, New Mexico needs better prepared principals in order to recruit and retain good teachers, and highly effective teachers are essential in order for students to benefit from extra time for focused learning. While there are many good ideas for improving our schools, we searched for and highlighted those ideas that the evidence demonstrates can move the needle for student achievement—particularly for at-risk students—based on experience in New Mexico and elsewhere.
You can read the report and find out more details about our recommendations on the Education Reform section of this website.
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 2023 legislative session!
Thanks to you, we met the challenge!
Our deep thanks go out to the ten extremely generous New Mexicans who put together a pool of challenge grants totaling $165,000 and to the 404 New Mexicans who helped us more than match that challenge!
Including both the challenge grants and your matching contributions, during the online fundraising campaign between October 17-28, 2022 you helped us raise $329,986, which is more than 45% of Think New Mexico's annual budget. We are especially pleased to welcome our 65 first-time supporters.
Since Think New Mexico was founded in 1999, we have always worked hard to keep our fundraising expenses to an absolute minimum. That's why we have never employed a professional fundraiser. This strategy has succeeded thanks to all of you who give so generously during our two-week fund drive every year and make it possible for Think New Mexico's small staff to focus on our policy research and advocacy work.
Find Out Where Your Candidates Stand on Think New Mexico's Policy Reforms!
On November 8, every seat in the New Mexico State House of Representatives is up for election, as is the governorship.
As you make your decision about who you are going to support, we encourage you to find out where your candidates stand on Think New Mexico's policy initiatives. Here's how to do it:
1) Find out which New Mexico State House district you live in by entering your address on the New Mexico legislature's website. (Note that due to the recent redistricting, your House district may have changed.)
2) Look up email addresses for the candidates running in your state House district and the gubernatorial candidates on our handy chart.
3) Send your candidate (and the candidates for governor!) a quick email asking where they stand on an issue or two that you are passionate about.
Here are some examples of questions you might ask:
Would you oppose any legislation that would reimpose the food tax?
Would you support making financial literacy a high school graduation requirement?
Would you support legislation that would maximize the amount of New Mexico's education budget that is spent in the classroom, rather than on school district central administration?
Would you support legislation to reform infrastructure funding in New Mexico by creating a merit-based process to prioritize and fully fund the most urgently needed projects across the state?
If you get a response to your questions to candidates, please let us know!
This information is extremely helpful to us as we work to build coalitions in support of Think New Mexico's policy reforms – and candidates are more likely to support these reforms if their voters are asking about them. Many thanks for your help!
Think New Mexico Welcomes our 2022 Leadership Interns!
This summer, our exceptional summer Leadership Interns include Malina Brannen, who grew up in Santa Fe and is now a senior majoring in Government and minoring in Spanish; Alyssa-Noelle Capuano, who graduated from La Cueva high school in Albuquerque and is now a rising senior at the University of New Mexico, majoring in Political Science, working on her MBA, and minoring in French; Salomon Moises Cordova, who was born in Cedar Crest and raised throughout central New Mexico, and just graduated from St. John's in Santa Fe; and Abigail Goldstein, who graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Spanish and is currently pursuing a Master's of Public Policy at the University of New Mexico.
Read more about this year's Leadership Interns.
Financial Literacy and Civics Should be Graduation Requirements!
The Public Education Department recently unveiled a proposed redesign of New Mexico's high school curriculum. That plan rejects the ideas of including personal finance and civics as high school graduation requirements and proposes to shift required courses in government, economics and New Mexico history to optional electives. We oppose this proposal because the research shows that relevant courses like civics and financial literacy keep students engaged and on track to graduate, and also that students will rise to meet higher expectations – it does them a disservice to water down graduation requirements.
Read our Education Reform Director's guest editorial about this proposal and join us in urging your legislators and the governor to keep New Mexico's graduation requirements rigorous and relevant for students!
Read more news from Think New Mexico
Visit the Action Center!
Send an email to your legislators and the governor about policy issues you care about!
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Think New Mexico
This legislative session, we're advocating for several important education reforms that can improve outcomes for New Mexico's public school students -- read more about what we're working on in this column from Tom McDonald in The Eastern New Mexico News:
Opinion: Think tank pushing for public education
www.easternnewmexiconews.com
With an upcoming legislative session around the corner, I thought I'd check in with my favorite think tank, Think New Mexico, about its plans for this year's Roundhouse romp. In case you're not ...
On January 1, 2023, we marked the end of four decades of predatory lending in New Mexico, thanks to a new law that reduces the maximum annual interest rate on small loans from 175%, one of the highest rates allowed anywhere in the nation, to 36%.
Predatory lending finally ending in New Mexico
www.abqjournal.com
OPINION: Tide turned in 2006 when Department of Defense recognized that predatory lending was impacting national security.
"Think New Mexico, a nonpartisan Santa Fe-based think tank, initially sought legislation increasing instructional hours to 1,170, said Mandi Torrez, a former New Mexico Teacher of the Year who serves as Think New Mexico's education reform director.
The think tank also proposed excluding home visits, parent teacher conferences, professional development and other programs from being counted among instructional hours.
After some compromising, Torrez said, the organization is pleased with the plan.
"We're good with 1,140," she said. "We're happy just to see that it's going up because we know that's what our students need, and we know that can help move the needle."
Torrez advocated for offering more enrichment activities — such as cooking, science and visual and performing arts programs — which she said allow students to apply core skills learned in the classroom and keep kids excited about coming to school.
Support staff for teachers such as counselors, social workers, volunteers and math and reading interventionists also are essential, she said, because they free up teachers' time to plan lessons or work with students in small groups.
"When you say extra time, it also has to be extra time in front of a quality teacher," Torrez said. "We don't want to just add extra time; we want to make sure that it's quality time and that we're doing things that kids need." ... See MoreSee Less
Advocates say proposed increase to school time won't work without better instruction
www.santafenewmexican.com
A bill being drafted would raise mandatory instructional time in schools in the state 60 to 150 hours over current requirements.
Thanks for discussing our education reform agenda on your podcast, I love New Mexico! ... See MoreSee Less
"New Mexicans in financial trouble who take out small loans from storefront lenders are now less likely to get trapped in a cycle of debt. A law passed last year went into effect on Jan. 1, drastically reducing the amount of interest these lenders can charge.
The state previously capped small loan interest rates at 175%. For a $500 loan, a borrower could have to pay as much as $875 in interest. For people with low incomes and few other places to turn, that could mean not being able to pay the loan back, and stacking up fees to extend the due date or borrow even more.
That's no longer allowed to happen in New Mexico, where the rate is now capped at 36%."
New Mexico becomes latest state to cap small loan interest rates at 36%
www.kunm.org
New Mexicans in financial trouble who take out small loans from storefront lenders are now less likely to get trapped in a cycle of debt. KUNM's Nash Jones reports a law passed last year went into e...
That is still a very high interest rate.
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Enjoying a snowy first day of the 2023 legislative
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