Over the last half-decade, New Mexico has built a reputation as a state that actually supports families with young kids. Lawmakers in Santa Fe authorized hundreds of millions in new child care spending, and grassroots activists succeeded in passing a constitutional ballot measure that dedicates a portion of revenue from a state oil-and-gas fund to early childhood education.

All told, the money represents one of the largest state investments in early childhood, earning New Mexico leaders glowing national praise. Activists in other states now regularly cite New Mexico’s organizing and legislative victories as inspiration as they push for their own funding tools.

But all the acclaim has come with an unexpected cost. In New Mexico, few want to hear about the families still struggling to access child care or the providers who are still waiting for a wage increase. New Mexico just ranked dead last again in a national child well-being ranking, for the fourth year in a row, and the state’s own newly released data shows that just 16 percent of children under age 6 are receiving child care subsidies, despite many more being eligible.

And this spring, when New Mexico lawmakers diverted child care trust fund money for the first time (to a Medicaid behavioral health program), it received nary a peep in coverage.

“It’s been a pretty quiet change, and for those who are making the decisions, it’s not really in anyone’s political interest to draw attention to it,” said Sara Mickelson, an independent child care policy consultant in New Mexico who served as cabinet secretary of the state’s Early Childhood Education and Care Department from 2023 to early 2025.

Mickelson and other child care care leaders have been thinking about the political trade-offs of dedicated child care funding streams, which today have passed in states including Montana, Vermont, and Connecticut. Some states, like Louisiana, Maryland, Georgia, and

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