Putting working families first

Dear Friend,

During his State of the Union address, President Biden called on Congress to put working families first to move our country forward. I couldn’t agree more.

One proven strategy to support working families is full-service community schools, which improve outcomes for our kids by helping public schools deliver wraparound support services for students and their families. This includes everything from medical, mental, and nutrition health services, mentoring and youth development programs, technical assistance, and continuing education courses.

Community schools help working families succeed.

I invited Tatiana Del Toro-Frank, Community School Coordinator at MacArthur Elementary School in Las Cruces, to be my guest for the State of the Union Address. It was an honor to have her join me and recognize her efforts to bolster New Mexico students’ education, health, and well-being, and to underscore the work that still lies ahead to expand access to early childhood education and full-service community schools.

I hope you can take a moment to watch and share the video of our conversation before we went over to the Capitol to watch the President’s speech.

VIDEO: U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich talks with Tatiana Del Toro-Frank, his guest for President Biden’s State of the Union, March 7, 2024.

Over the last two years, I have steered nearly $10 million of federal funding to New Mexico to support community schools and to make the effort to scale these proven strategies for supporting working families and children to schools all across our state. In this Congress, I am proud to cosponsor the Full-Service Community School Expansion Act of 2023, which would take this effort nationwide.

Additionally, I have long led efforts to deliver more resources to support early childhood education in New Mexico. In 2014, I became the first member of the New Mexico Congressional Delegation to publicly support unlocking investments from the state’s Land Grant Permanent Fund to support early childhood education.

Then, after the New Mexico Legislature and voters in our state passed a constitutional amendment to unlock investments from the Land Grant Permanent Fund for early childhood and K-12 public education I led the successful effort in Congress to pass the New Mexico Education Enhancement Act, which granted federal approval.

President Biden and Democrats are delivering for New Mexicans

These last few years, Democrats have delivered monumental wins for working Americans. Under President Biden, we secured the largest expansion of health care for our nation’s veterans in generations. We created an American manufacturing boom by making historic investments in our workforce and in our infrastructure. And we've taken unprecedented strides toward lowering costs and accelerating a clean energy future.

Meanwhile, Republicans were consumed by chaos, dysfunction, and extremism—bent on taking away freedoms, diminishing our democracy, and giving tax breaks out to their billionaire friends and ultra-wealthy hedge fund executives. 

VIDEO: U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich reacts to President Biden’s State of the Union address, March 7, 2024.

I am committed to working alongside President Biden and my Democratic colleagues to deliver for New Mexicans by ensuring the transformative investments we’ve secured reach every community in every corner of our state. This is how we will make sure our kids get every opportunity they need to thrive.

Sincerely,