Santa Fe Public Schools to spend $46,000 per student in new budget

According to a recent Santa Fe New Mexican report the school district in Santa Fe’s school board has passed a new budget for FY 2026. The budget will spend $474.3 million to educate an estimated 10,299 students. We did the math and this budget represents a positively shocking $46,000 per student! 

The article goes on to note that (due to a declining student population) this is a $15.4 million decrease from last year. Shockingly, the district anticipates a $2.2 million shortfall even with this incredible amount of spending per-student. As RGF has noted time and again all of this spending has NOT resulted in improved student outcomes. Where is all the money going? How do Santa Fe schools have a deficit?

As RGF noted recently in a separate post Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) plans to spend north of $35,000 per student.