By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE – If you want to know how your local high school is doing on things like enrollment, test scores and graduation rates, you can find the data in seconds on the Public Education Department website.
But if you want to find out how two of the state’s three [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE — Is it easier not to work than try to find a decent job?
That’s the question some ask after a recent study showed total welfare benefits in New Mexico average $27,900 a year, or about $13.41 an hour if compared to full-time work.
“Poor people are not lazy. [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
A recently discovered test from 1912, given to eighth-graders in rural Kentucky, has quickly generated debate across the blogosphere about the quality of today’s education standards.
The 1912 test is, well, hard.
The exam, which covered eight subjects, has been donated to the Bullitt County History Museum in Shepherdsville, Ky., so [...]

The disability story isn’t going away.
Last month, New Mexico Watchdog reported how the number of people in New Mexico receiving Social Security disability benefits has skyrocketed nearly 60 percent in the last nine years.
Now, we’ve learned that by the Social Security Administration’s own figures, the national Disability Insurance Trust Fund is on a path to [...]

As Americans receiving work disability have grown to record numbers, the increase in the Land of Enchantment has far outpaced the national average.
A review of figures from the Social Security Administration by New Mexico Watchdog shows that between 2003 and 2011 (the most recent year available for states), 22,488 more people in New Mexico are [...]

To legalize or not?
That’s a question New Mexico (and so many other states in the nation) ponders in the wake of Washington state and Colorado recently decriminalizing marijuana.
In the current 60-day legislative session in Santa Fe, there is one bill looking to greatly reduce penalties for pot possession and two memorials in the Senate looking to study the economic and budgetary effects [...]

The cow jumped over the moon. And the cost of a gallon of milk might soon follow.
While the talk of the government going over the fiscal cliff has dominated the headlines, another deadline is fast approaching.
The federal government’s current 5-year farm bill is about to expire at the end of 2012 and due to a [...]

Should New Mexico follow the lead of states like Washington and Colorado and decriminalize recreational use of marijuana?
A senior fellow at a major national think tank says yes but an outgoing state representative and former FBI narcotics officer says no.
Appearing in Santa Fe earlier this month, Ted Galen Carpenter of the Cato Institute said that [...]

For a non-profit organization dedicated to public service, KNME-TV pays its general manager more than its faithful supporters might imagine.  Polly Anderson, the general manager of New Mexico PBS, receives $165,000 a year, plus benefits. Her non-profit salary is right up there with what for-profit corporations pay managers at far larger television stations.  Though her [...]

Noted economist Milton Friedman was born on July 31, 1912 and free-market and small-government advocates around the world are celebrating what would have been his 100th birthday today.
If you’re not that familiar with Friedman, here’s an excerpt of an interview he did back in 1979 with Phil Donahue:

Here are some links to various commemorations of [...]