A teacher’s lens provides clarity about the state of our state as we move through each day and every school year. After all, we have front row seats to what is happening in our communities. We feel it when we know our students might go hungry during the weekend. We worry when we know a student may not have a stable housing situation. Our hearts ache when one of our students does not get medical care that they need.
As the 2020 New Mexico Teacher of the Year, I am asking you to help lift these burdens off of our students so that they can be safe, healthy and thrive in our classrooms. I am asking that you spread the word about the importance of the 2020 Census. And, please, don’t be shy about it.
Each student counted brings more than $3,700 to our state every year for 10 years. Some of those federal dollars support schools through special education grants, Title I grants, Head Start and school lunches. Schools cannot fulfill their missions as community lifelines without these funds. But schooling is only part of how we, as a society, can take care of our students. Other census-informed programs include Section 8 housing vouchers, heating assistance funding, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and so much more.
As we have been forced to confront the COVID-19 pandemic, it is most urgent to take care of students’ basic needs before we can help them engage in learning. We especially need to support the 87 percent of children living near or below the poverty line who rely on Medicaid, another census-informed program.
New Mexico has missed out on millions of dollars in support simply because residents don’t count themselves or their family members. According to the Census Bureau, nearly every area in our state is listed as “hard to count,” and more than 45 percent of children live in hard-to-count areas — that’s more than any other state in the U.S.
Sometimes people simply forget to count every adult or child in the household. Sometimes people do not respond out of fear that the Bureau will ask about citizenship or that information given would be shared with other agencies—both of which are untrue. Families do not need to worry about the immigration status of anyone living at an address, and any information collected will be kept confidential for 72 years.
We cannot waste a single moment when it comes to our students. When we are not counted accurately, our children pay the price for an entire decade. In fact, just a one percent undercount of children under the age of 5 in New Mexico will result in a $38,084,694 loss in federal funding.
Our children deserve better. They deserve to come to school ready to learn without carrying burdens beyond their control. Fill out your census as soon as you receive your form. If you already filled out your census by phone, on paper or online, now it’s time to become an ambassador for our state and influence others to do the same. Check with your family, friends and neighbors to make sure they have filled out theirs. Create posts on social media urging others in your schools and communities to count their household.
We are obligated to keep children from having to ask difficult questions about their safety and well-being. We must assure them that school is a safe place where their needs can be met. Please let those reassurances come from you, your completed census and from your effort to get the word out. It’s a simple ask that can lift up all of New Mexico for the next generation.
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Mandi Torrez is a third grade teacher at Placitas Elementary in Placitas, New Mexico. She is the 2020 New Mexico Teacher of the Year.
