APS 2026 budget to spend an estimated $35,384 per-pupil

The Albuquerque Journal recently reported that Albuquerque Public Schools has put out its latest planned budget for the 2025-2026 school year. The District continues to see increased annual budgets to serve a plummeting number of students. Shockingly, despite MORE money for FEWER students, the District once again claims it is facing a “deficit.”

As the article notes, APS is on the verge of adopting a $2.3 billion annual budget for next school year. The District estimates “fewer than 65,000 students” though we ran the calculation above based on an even 65,000 students just to be safe (a more specific number isn’t available). By that calculation APS will spend a mind-blowing $35,384 per-pupil during the next school year.

The so-called “deficit” faced by the District is for an estimated $4.7 million.

Of course, event these numbers don’t tell the entire story. According to a separate recent report “Only HALF of APS students attend school 90% of the time” and student performance at the already-low-performing district continues to drop.

There is no question that APS is a difficult (or impossible) institution to turn around. Allowing parents and families to take even a portion of the $35,000+ to a school of their choice as is happening in an increasing number of states would be a logical move, but that’s simply not going to happen with the current Legislature and Governor.