Curious Altruism

   Child maltreatment leads to a number of other abuses including but not limited to sexual abuse, criminal violence, intimate partner violence, and more.  Child maltreatment isn’t specific to one state. It is happening in multiple states, and it has been for many years. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private charitable organization that works to improve the educational, economic, social, and health outcomes for disadvantaged children and young people in the United States, has an annual report that ranks states according to education and child wellbeing in categories such as economic well-being, education, health, family, and community.. The states that ranked lowest overall were Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and West Virginia. New Mexico was the lowest performing state for four years in a row.  

According to the report, in New Mexico, 25% of children's parents lack secure employment. 34% of children in New Mexico are growing up in single parent families. 16% of children in New Mexico are growing up in poverty, 8% of them are growing up in high poverty areas, 70% of fourth graders are not proficient in reading, 73% of eighth graders are not proficient in math, 31% of children and teens ages 10 - 17 have been diagnosed with obesity. The other lower performing states had similar data (please use the KIDS COUNT data link for more information). 

The New Mexico Public Education Department released 2025 summative assessment data showing literacy proficiency is at 44% in grades 3rd-8th and 41% in grades kindergarten to 2nd grade. According to the report, these are an improvement, but the data is still low.

According to the National Literacy Institute, in 2024, 21% of adults in the United States were illiterate (that’s more than 72,000,000 people), 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level). There are more than 340 million people in the United States, so half of that is 170,000,000 people. New Mexico was the state with the lowest child literacy rate.  The institute also stated that low levels of literacy proficiency costs the US up to 2.2 trillion per year. Multiple academic sources state that adult literacy impacts the literacy levels of younger populations.

Furthermore, despite teacher pay being increased in the past years and there being less of a demand for overwhelming paperwork, teacher burnout is still a real problem which impacts child wellbeing. Historically, New Mexico had one of the highest teacher turnover rates in the United States with its percentage at 23%.  Every year The Southwest Outreach Academic Research (SOAR) Center at NMSU publishes an annual New Mexico Educator Vacancy Report. This report gives the public an idea about the staffing needs across the state. In 2025, the report showed that though there was a decrease in teacher vacancies, high-need areas like special education and elementary education persist. 

One bad year of reading instruction can take up to six years to remedy. Reading instruction happens in elementary settings. A literacy lesson that a general education student comprehends after the fourth practice cycle, can take more than 80 practice cycles for children in special education... sometimes even more... Our literacy scores are being impacted by the lack of desire to go into the teaching career. Literacy affects all other child wellbeing scores. Teaching is not a desirable profession, on average. That's a big problem. Teacher burnout is impacting child wellbeing and literacy.

 The National Educational Association stated that many adults lack basic knowledge about personal finance, including banking, credit, debt management, and savings. Bandura's Social Learning Theory states that sometimes people learn from observing the behaviors of others. If adults lack a necessary literacy skill, they can't model its value, and that is a problem for our children. The National Educational Association stated teaching personal finance in schools has a long-term positive effect on students’ financial literacy and economic behavior. It said that critical thinking and understanding causes for economic disparities are a result of teaching financial curriculum. There are a number of states with low levels of economic wellbeing. 

According to the CDC, Children with obesity are more likely to have numerous health conditions. These include high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Children with obesity are also more likely to have obesity as adults. Adults with obesity have a higher risk of developing many diseases. These include heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some types of cancer. Obesity costs the US healthcare system almost $173 billion a year.

Obesity also affects the nation's military readiness. Only 2 in 5 young adults are weight-eligible and physically prepared for basic training.

This data proves that New Mexico's children need us. These reports show us that the American people need us, and they need us to step in now. There is data that children in New Mexico need us. Lack of education about nutrition and exercise is child maltreatment. Lack of education about reading literacy, writing literacy, and economics literacy is child maltreatment. There is data that say child maltreatment isn't specific to New Mexico. It is happening in multiple states. It is our job to step in, because kids can’t do the work themselves. We can’t create an equitable world for future generations without knowledge of how to read and write. If children are unhealthy, the population will not thrive.

Our projects are designed to eradicate these deficits. We’re not just impacting New Mexico. We’re going to impact the nation. Please refer to our projects page for more information. 

You can use the link below to access the KIDS COUNT Data Book by the Annie E. Casey Foundation to find specifics about different states. 

Our projects are designed to end these problems. With the right amount of time and the right resources, we believe that we can end child maltreatment. Please refer to our projects page for more information.