New Mexico State Senator Dede Feldman's Blog

Leave No Child Inside: APS's Valley Cluster Funded to Move Kids Outdoors Thanks to Outdoor Classroom Program

Last week, the State Parks Division held an event down at the Rio Grande Nature Center (a state park) to herald the second year of the statewide Outdoor Classroom Program.  And the proof of the program's appeal was in the pudding - or actually, in the Bosque - as scores of elementary and high school students descended on the Nature Center from as far away as Ramah Navajo and as close as Georgia O'Keefe Elementary, in the Heights.
   
The idea behind the program is to get children outside, in nature, where they can learn science, geography first hand, and fall in love with nature.  In today's world lots of kids stay inside, playing video games, looking up their friends on Myspace-with occasional trips to the mall.  That's a far cry from my own childhood, where there was ample time to play outdoors, at the woods at the end of the street.  Now, in much of the country, there are no woods at the end of the street. But, thank goodness, there's the Rio Grande Bosque, and, further afield, the mountains, the desert and everything that makes New Mexico, well, New Mexico.

I thought the Outdoor Classroom program was a perfect fit for kids here in the North Valley where ten years ago I attended an alarming focus group for middle schoolers at Garfield Middle School. And it wasn't just the pizza and soda, with which the facilitators got the kids to participate, that was alarming. Many of these kids never went to the bosque and seldom played out side.  Meanwhile, the rate of obesity and diabetes continues to go up among this group.
 
That's why I was delighted in March when my appropriation for at least one outdoor learning experience for every 5th grader in the APS's Valley Cluster went through, and the overall program received $500,000 for school districts around the state. 
Yippee! Leave No Child Inside!

Moms Are Rising & A Win-Win for Young Families

Autumn greetings! Fall is such a special time in New Mexico.  For me it’s like when you clean your windshield after a dust storm, and see clearly for the first time.  What makes the light change like that? Does anyone out there know?  I think it’s one of the great treasures of New Mexico.
            
This summer has been frantically busy for me, with the completion of the Health Coverage for New Mexicans study and task force, and continued discussion of ethics and campaign finance reform.  Frankly, my husband says that health care reform is driving him crazy, and if I mention “community rating”, “electronic medical records”, “indigent funds”, “ERISA,” or anything else connected with universal health care, he’s going to kill me.  I don’t blame him.  So, now for something a little different…. 

Moms are Rising in New Mexico

Rep. Danice Picraux (D-Albuquerque) and I were recently honored for our help in passing a bill that will guarantee the right of mothers to breast feed their babies or pump milk for them in the workplace during breaks.  This may sound like a small thing, but it’s part of building a family-friendly New Mexico. Usually, we hear about family values in the context of conservative opposition to same sex marriage, or support for home schooling or abstinence-only campaigns.   But it seems to me that “family values” have to be placed in the context of today’s economic realities.  Those realities are pretty harsh for young women and young families.  Did you now that three quarters of young mothers are in the work force, since it now takes two paychecks to make ends meet? And a full quarter of families with children under six live in poverty? Yet mothers are paid 73 cents to every man’s dollar for the same work, and single mothers are paid even less—60 cents. That’s why an exciting organization, both nationally and locally, has arisen to advocate for family-friendly workplaces and policies like family leave, flex time, and prohibition of discrimination based on family responsibilities. That organization is called Mom’s Rising and it can be reached at www.momsrising.org .

Support to Young Families during Children’s Early Years is a Win-Win, for Them -- and Us
            
Young families need support at home as well as in the workplace, and that’s why I’m so proud of our Lt. Governor, state legislators and the whole early childhood community for pushing us forward with pre-kindergarten and home visiting programs. These programs are just beginning to receive the support they’ve need for years in New Mexico.  Earlier this month I heard a presentation by Rob Grunewald, of the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis.  Not your usual Early Childhood Advocate. He brought studies for Michigan, North Carolina, Illinois and New York about programs there, which had yielded big results.  In fact, he said, investments in early childhood development yield a rate of return of about 16 percent a year—a rate far greater than traditional economic development projects.   Those returns are in the form of decreased costs for special education, lower number of juvenile arrests, fewer months on welfare, fewer teenage pregnancies and higher educational achievement. And that’s not even counting happier, more self-sufficient and fulfilled people!  For more information go to www.minneapolisfed.org  .

Standoff at the OK Corral - NM style (with audio)

With the special session set to begin tomorrow, legislation important to people across New Mexico waits to be acted upon.  Click to hear me discuss the special session --> Dede032307.mp3 .  Please contact your State Senator and urge him or her to stick with it until the important remaining legislation is acted upon.

Go to the following site for contact information for your State Senator the New Mexico Legislature Website .

Ethics Bills, Domestic Partners at Stake in Iffy Special Session

Call your Senator to Stick in Session if These Matter to You


For me, the Senate’s decision Tuesday to Sine Die reflected more than
exhaustion, more than a fit of pique with the Governor and the House.
It reflected a continued dismissal of ethics reform as urgent business
that the state must deal with one way or the other. As many of you
know these were major, contested issues for me during the regular
session. And, for the most part, I lost. But the Special Session
represents another opportunity to pass some meaningful reforms.

...

To recap what you’ve already seen in the news – the enactment of
campaign contribution limits, public financing for judicial campaigns,
an ethics commission were included in the Governor’s proclamation for
the special, along with GRIP II, domestic partners, and an increase in
domestic violence penalties.

In what seemed like a final blow, my bill to limit campaign
contributions was defeated by one vote in the final seconds of the
session when Sen. Joe Carraro changed his vote, and one Democrat whom
I thought was voting for the measure (Sen. John Arthur Smith) voted
no. Sen. Linda Lopez, Sen. Tim Jennings and Sen. Shannon Robinson
were the other Democrats who voted no.  All  —and I
mean all—of the Republicans voted against the caps—the same measure
that they had moved (unsuccessfully) to push back until 3007.

We still have a chance to pass some of these measures, but first you
have to convince your Senator that ethics reform is an emergency.
That’s certainly what the task force felt; it’s what the Governor
wants, and, I believe it’s what the public wants, too.

But only a massive outpouring from you can help. Contact:

Sen. Lopez Linda.Lopez@nmlegis.gov  phone:986-4737
Sen. Pinto John.Pinto@nmlegis.gov phone: 986-4835
Sen. John Arthur Smith john.smith@nmlegis.gov phone:986-4363
Sen. Michael Sanchez senatormssanchez@aol.com phone: 986-4727
Sen. James Taylor jamesg.taylor@nmlegis.gov phone: 986-4862
Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, especially. bernadette.sanchez@nmlegis.gov phone: 986-4267

More on this later—but for your amusement, I’ve attached a photo of
the inbox I returned to after the session adjourned on Saturday. I’ve
spent most of the week digging out., and figuring out how to get back
to my business.