Southwest Public Policy Institute
In March 2020, schools nationwide started closing their doors. Government bureaucrats fought to keep schools closed for over a year while parents struggled desperately to cope with mandatory remote learning. Reading and math proficiency scores declined in school districts across the country, creating the greatest educational inequity in our lifetimes. But there’s a silver lining… […]
In May, the Albuquerque Journal’s Esteban Candelaria reported on the proposed budget of Albuquerque Public Schools. The APS Board of Education was taken aback by the funding request: $1.936 billion for fiscal year 2023. At almost $2 billion, this budget represents a 16.73% increase from the 2022 allocation. Simultaneously, APS has seen a marked enrollment […]
On June 3, 2022, Bruce Krasnow with the New Mexico Economic Development Department announced the award of over one million dollars in job training funds. New Mexico’s Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP) was originally launched in 1972 as the Industrial Development Training Program and has evolved over its lifespan. JTIP claims to have supported the […]
Originally published at Santa Fe New Mexican on June 11, 2022. Earlier this year, as New Mexico debated legislation limiting to 36 percent the annual percentage rate for consumer loans in the state, the primary witness testified in support of the bill before the Consumer and Public Affairs Committee. Claims were made that do not hold […]
Erin Norman, senior messaging strategist at State Policy Network, recently published critical commentary of President Joe Biden’s inflation-fighting plan. Introduced last week, Biden highlights his plan in the Wall Street Journal. Composed of over 1,100 words, he spent one third of the article telling Americans how good things are right now. But the public begs […]
The personal finance website WalletHub just released its report on 2022’s Best and Worst State Economies. The WalletHub methodology incorporates twenty-eight indicators across three broad categories of economic activity, economic health, and innovation potential. The weighted final score is then used to rank each state. Source: WalletHub As seen before with metrics such as post-pandemic […]
New Mexico suffered from some of the most draconian pandemic-related school closures in the country: how did this impact educational outcomes? On Tuesday, Esteban Candelaria, a staff writer with the Albuquerque Journal, reported on delays in academic assessment reporting from the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED). While data from SAT testing will be made […]
Even employers with a single employee are obligated to implement a sick leave policy under the new law. Next month, on July 1, 2022, the New Mexico Paid Sick Leave Law will take effect. The Healthy Workplaces Act of 2021 requires all private employers, no matter the size, to pay sick leave to all employees. […]
According to WalletHub’s latest report, post-pandemic, Utah’s unemployment rate has recovered more than any other state in the nation. Source: WalletHub In order to identify the states whose unemployment rates are bouncing back most, personal finance website WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on six key metrics that compare unemployment […]
The Southwest Public Policy Institute is the latest addition to the Free Speech Alliance, joining over 90 organizations and individuals who oppose the silencing of conservative voices on social media. You can find out more about the Free Speech Alliance at mrc.org/freespeechalliance. Here’s the Problem. Conservatives are under attack. Conservatives face an existential crisis as social […]