#poverty

Now replace "feed" with "bomb" and people who objected to it would start supporting it.

"New Mexico’s child care assistance program is set to expand and become the first universal program in the U.S., the governor announced Monday [September 8, 2025].

New Mexico Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the state is eliminating the income eligibility requirements of its current child care assistance program to do this.

Currently, the program waives copayments for New Mexico families with incomes at or below 400% of the federal poverty level. That allows those families to pay little-to-no child care costs.

In November [2025], that will now apply to all families. The state estimates this expansion will save families an average of $12,000 per child [to clarify, that is PER YEAR. Families will save an average of $12,000 per child PER YEAR. x, x. That is a life-changing difference for so many fucking people.]

“It’s the difference between making it when inflation in this country remains too high. Particularly, in areas, like food, things that families have to have to raise their families,” the governor said.

With the expansion comes increased demand for care facilities. New Mexico estimates they will need an additional 5,000 early childhood professionals to achieve a universal system. They plan to increase reimbursement rates and give incentives to programs committing to pay entry-level staff a minimum of $18 per hour and offer 10 hours of care per day, five days a week.

[Note: As of 2025, the minimum wage in New Mexico is $12/hour (or $3/hour for tipped employees, I hate the tipped minimum wage), and a lot of care work pays minimum wage or a dollar or two above it, so this will mean significant raises for a lot of people.]

The state also plans to do the following to improve the supply of care:

Establish a $12.7 million low-interest loan fund to construct, expand and renovate child care facilities

Additional $20 million requested in the Fiscal Year 2027 budget. 

Target growth to focus on care for infants, toddlers, low-income families and children with special needs. 

Partner with employers and school districts to expand child care options for working families. 

Launch a statewide campaign to recruit licensed and registered home providers. 

“Early childhood care and education is a public good,” said Elizabeth Groginsky, secretary of the New Mexico’s Early Childhood Education and Care Department. “By providing universal access and improving pay for our early childhood workforce, we are easing financial pressure on families, strengthening our economy and helping every child learn in safe, nurturing environments. This is the kind of investment that builds equity today and prosperity for the future.” 

More information on how to access universal child care benefits and more is available here: https://www.nmececd.org/universal...

So many families have to make the tough decision to raise their children or work to pay the bills. This will solve that problem for many hard working New Mexicans."

do yall know how fucking nauseating it is to hear people only bring up my state to make jokes about people in poverty and incestuous relationships? how much shame I feel that I wasn't born up north like the Good Queers and Good Leftists with all the Civilised Folk with actual houses instead of small cramped trailers that have paper thin walls that I know won't protect me in a bad enough storm?

do yall know how frustrating it is to be trans in a place that wants to kill you and whenever you bring it up to people they say "well just move out" instead of sympathizing with you or offering help?

do yall understand how alienating it is to see huge masterposts of queer and mental health resources but none of them are in your state because theyre all up north? and nobody seems to want to fix this glaring issue because "they're all hicks anyways"

A habitable, equal and prosperous 21st century is materially possible. The carbon budget allows it and history offers precedents at comparable scales: universal suffrage, the universalisation of healthcare and education, the halving of working hours and the sharp compression of inequality over the 20th century. Technical impossibility is not what is standing in the way, but rather the absence of a shared vision of social progress, at once concrete and radical. What it will take instead is political choice, and the hard work of coalition-building behind it.