As has been noted, when trying to “fix” the problems of education and employment in NM, each level of education points to the one below it as being the source of the problem.
For example, community colleges and universities in NM complain that HS graduates are not prepared to do higher ed level work, and that instead, students need a great deal of remedial work just to get started. Currently the focus is all the way down to the earliest childcare, in hopes that the most “at risk for falling behind” children in poverty can be set on the same path as their better situated peers.
To that end, the NM legislature is working on creating a new aggregated department to address problems of poverty for brith to 5 years old children called the “Early Childhood Education and Care Department”.
[gview file=”https://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Early-childhood-department-has-governor’s-backing-New-Mexico-In-Depth.pdf”]“The governor believes the research is clear: the early years of a child’s life are formative and lay the foundation for the child’s future health, well-being and development.”