APS + BRAC = big savings and better learning conditions

After many years of steep enrollment declines (According to KOB 4, APS dropped from 84,000 students in 2018 to just under 64,000 at the end of the 2025-26 school year) the APS school board recently launched “right sizing” talks in order to build public support for and ultimately carry out some much-needed downsizing.

This is welcome and long-overdue news. You obviously need far fewer school buildings to house 64,000 students than 84,000. Also, considering the District’s constant struggle to cool classrooms in the heat of August and early September, it would behoove the District to have fewer AC units to maintain.

You even had two school board members recently in the Albuquerque Journal discussing how returning underutilized land owned by the District to the private sector economy has helped boost local economic growth and business development.

So, when it comes to closing schools and rightsizing the District’s footprint, we’d like to help. We suggest the District model its approach on the most successful federal spending reduction effort (possibly ever) called a BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure). A BRAC uses set goals (savings, number of closures etc. set by Congress or in this case the School Board) to empower an appointed board that then makes recommendations which are ultimately voted up or down by the Congress/Board. That helps take some of the politics out of the process and leads to decisions based on what is best for the mission rather than political concerns.

Such a process might need a few minor tweaks at the school district level, but it is the best model for closing unnecessary facilities in government that we’ve run across.