About 32 thousand youth in New Mexico are neither working nor in school, costing the state an estimated $623 million a year.

While overall enrollment in Medicaid-covered behavioral healthcare has decreased, those still enrolled are using more services at a higher cost.

New Mexico has improved its timeliness in delivering food benefits, but its error rate has worsened.

The Legislature has appropriated nearly $200 million to the rural health care delivery fund to improve healthcare access in rural counties, but the program lacks standards and it is unclear if the spending has resulted in improvements.

Both violent and property crime rates have fallen since a recent peak in 2018, but they remain above the national average and persistently high.

Almost three-quarters of funding in programs surveyed for the 2025 inventory of evidence-based programs was targeted at evidence- or research-based approaches, up from 2024.

New Mexico’s public school capital outlay funding formula is more fair than the funding mechanisms in many states, but a growing number of requests for exceptions to the rules suggest the need for changes.

New Mexico juvenile justice reforms to divert low-risk offenders from confinement has led to far fewer youth in secure facilities, but the state lacks the prevention and treatment services to keep low-risk juveniles from returning to the justice system.