New Mexico has slipped in increasing child care capacity, analysts say

New Mexico’s early childhood leaders have a bit of a hole to climb out of before making child care universally accessible.

The state Early Childhood Education and Care Department has struggled in recent years to make good on its goal of expanding child care access to as many New Mexicans as possible, analysts with the Legislative Finance Committee told lawmakers on Friday. The state has shown lackluster progress in increasing child care capacity and a decline in low-income families taking advantage of state-subsidized child care in recent years.

“Funding levels remain sufficient and … implementation remains an issue,” analyst Allegra Hernandez said during a Legislative Health and Human Services Committee meeting in Las Cruces.

Since fiscal year 2012, when early childhood programs receiv