Greater Coordination Needed For Early Childhood Programs

Public investment in early childhood programs can save the state money in the long-run but New Mexico’s multi-agency administrative system and fragmented delivery system makes it difficult for the state to coordinate programs, an LFC program evaluation concludes.

The review of state investment in early childhood finds the state needs to regularly compile information on the funding and effectiveness of early childhood programs to ensure the state is getting the most out of its spending.

The LFC Program Evaluation unit presented its findings to the committee during its May meeting. The report is available online on the LFC website, lfc.nmlegis.gov.

Executive agencies have proposed creating an Early Childhood Collaborative as a subset of the Children’s Cabinet to focus on early childhood issues, the report notes. The report recommends the proposed collaborative identify clear goals for improving outcomes for pregnant women and very young children by addressing areas with high rates of child poverty and other risk factors.

The review found that the state might not be effectively using its $6.7 million investment in home-visiting programs to families with infants because the Children, Youth and Families Department, which administers the program, has not focused its spending on programs with demonstrated success. Department managers have failed to establish performance standards or to target the use of taxpayer dollars to families with the greatest need.

The Department of Health “appears better positioned to implement nurse-based home visiting, including capturing Medicaid and other federal funding,” the report says.

The state could especially benefit from more strategic spending on preschool that takes into account federal Head Start funds and other funding sources.

In FY08, New Mexico received at least $80 million in outside public funding for preschool programs from seven major programs. In addition, the state has appropriated $79 million to its pre-kindergarten program since FY06. However, while the state has comprehensive high standards for preschool programs, it is unclear whether other programs, like Head Start, can be required to comply with those standards.

The report identifies $4.2 million the state could save on preschool spending by eliminating services duplicated by other publicly funded programs and reducing excessive administrative costs. Administrative costs for New Mexico pre-kindergarten programs, administered by both the Public Education and Children, Youth and Families departments, have averaged 17 percent to 20 percent of total program costs, exceeding a statutory limit of 10 percent. The savings could be used to serve an additional 600 children.