Per Pupil spending for New Mexico’s largest school districts

Determining how much school districts spend on a per-student basis can be a challenging process. According to newly-released data from the US Census Bureau, New Mexico spends $10,177 per-student. That is a higher number than any of our neighbors with the exception of Colorado.

Of course, spending by district varies and we tend to believe that the US Census Bureau is not capturing the full number. Recently, we asked four of New Mexico’s largest school districts for “the District’s annual budget for the 2019-2020 school year” and “student population for the same year.”

Needless to say, the numbers came back quite a bit higher per-pupil than what the Census Bureau data reflects. Needless to say, education spending data are  somewhat opaque even when you have it from the Census Bureau and there are districts in New Mexico that spend MUCH more than $10,177 per person.

APS data is posted online. 

Their annual budget is: $1,475,755,646 spent over 79,366 students

Here is Las Cruces schools data. The District spent $430,295,149 over 24,648 students

Here is Rio Rancho schools budget. Here is their student population. The District spent $309,216,222 over 17,212 students

Here is the  Santa Fe Schools budget and here is the  student population data.

The District spent $311,136,965 over 12,249 students.