Albuquerque Journal releases handy/relevant data scoreboard

How are we doing in New Mexico? The Rio Grande Foundation believes that we should eagerly contrast and compare various policy data against (especially) our neighboring states, but also consider national and even international comparisons where applicable. This helps us understand whether our Legislature and Gov. are making good decisions or not. This is NOT a view shared by everyone. In fact, some, including a former KOB-TV reporter and New Mexico’s House Speaker believe that New Mexico so special that it can’t possibly be compared to other states. 

Thankfully the Albuquerque Journal shares our view and has even produced a scoreboard that compares New Mexico against its regional peers and the nation as a whole. Categories include “Quality of Life,”  “Economy,” “Safety,” “Healthcare,” “Education,” and “Population.” It is definitely worth a look and we’ll offer a few thoughts here:

1. The only major category New Mexico is “winning” is “quality of life.” There are some good metrics in quality of life like commute times and cost of living. New Mexico does well in 14 of 16 categories, but some of them may not be particularly valuable to people in New Mexico or considering New Mexico.
2. On the economy (not surprisingly) New Mexico fares far worse with 1 positive and 12 negative metrics. It remains baffling to us that neither the public at large nor their elected officials seem to care about the State’s poor economic performance even with massive oil and gas revenues thanks to a booming oil and gas industry.
3. On safety, it is no surprise that New Mexico does poorly on 11 of 12 metrics.
4. While SOME effort has been made to improve the availability of medical professionals in New Mexico healthcare remains a concern for New Mexicans with only 3 of 12 metrics listed as positive.
5. New Mexico’s education system spends a lot for terrible outcomes. We’ll soon have a new round of NAEP test scores to provide a further update as to where New Mexico stands, but absent ambitious reforms it is hard to see New Mexico dramatically improving its education outcomes. New Mexico scores well in 1 of 8 education categories.
6. Perhaps the most shocking and important metric is the fact that New Mexico’s population situation is the most dire of ALL the categories with NO positive outcomes (12 of 12 are negative).

The information is presented in easy to understand graphics (like the ones below showing New Mexico’s plummeting public school enrollment and high child poverty). Ultimately New Mexico scores well on 19 metrics and poorly in 40: