New Mexico school enrollment decline driven by plummeting births

Our friends at Reason just released an interesting report dealing with various school enrollment data. Long story short, New Mexico (not just Albuquerque Public Schools) is seeing declines in enrollment. Specifically, New Mexico’s school enrollment declined by 7.3% (the 5th steepest decline) between 2019 and 2014. Births in New Mexico dropped 11.9%, a worse decline than any state except Vermont, Wyoming, and Alaska.

Net domestic migration dropped as well, but international migration was significant.

What can New Mexico do to keep more young people? Several of the top performing states in terms of a growing youth population (Florida, South Dakota, and Texas) have a zero income tax. Economic growth drives population shifts.