What New Mexico School Districts Spend Per Student
The median New Mexico school district spends $15,079 per student per year, $536 above the national median of $14,543, across all 141 districts the state reports. The 89 of them a ZIP code can reach are listed below, and their 299,234 students account for $4.0 billion of current spending in fiscal year 2022.
New Mexico at a Glance
| Median district, per student | $15,079 |
|---|---|
| National median district | $14,543 |
| Districts listed | 89 of 141 |
| Students listed | 299,234 |
| Median district, math | ≈18% |
| Median district, reading | ≈33% |
Every New Mexico District, by Enrollment
Spending is current spending divided by fall membership for fiscal year 2022. Proficiency and graduation rates are school year 2018-19, the last year before the pandemic interrupted state testing, so the money and the results are not from the same year. A figure marked ≈ is one the federal file published as a range rather than a value, so small groups of children stay unidentifiable; it is the middle of that range and within ten points of the real one. A dash means the federal files publish no value under that district's ID. 52 further New Mexico districts are missing because the federal boundary file places them in no ZIP code, which is normal for charter and virtual districts with no attendance area.
| District | Students | Per student | Math | Reading | Graduation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albuquerque Public Schools | 81,762 | $12,964 | 21% | 30% | 70% |
| Las Cruces Public Schools | 23,771 | $12,237 | 18% | 33% | 84% |
| Rio Rancho Public Schools | 17,292 | $11,377 | ≈12% | ≈27% | 89% |
| Gadsden Independent Schools | 12,620 | $14,189 | 22% | 37% | 84% |
| Gallup-McKinley County Schools | 12,043 | $16,054 | 17% | 30% | 77% |
| Santa Fe Public Schools | 11,989 | $12,912 | 18% | 30% | 78% |
| Farmington Municipal Schools | 11,126 | $11,393 | 23% | 43% | 80% |
| Roswell Independent Schools | 9,854 | $12,961 | 20% | 29% | 73% |
| Hobbs Municipal Schools | 9,772 | $11,533 | 17% | 31% | 85% |
| Carlsbad Municipal Schools | 8,835 | $10,509 | — | — | 77% |
| Los Lunas Public Schools | 8,203 | $10,978 | 20% | 34% | 78% |
| Clovis Municipal Schools | 7,849 | $11,426 | 25% | 35% | 80% |
| Alamogordo Public Schools | 5,571 | $11,242 | 26% | 39% | 79% |
| Deming Public Schools | 5,352 | $13,484 | 18% | 27% | 70% |
| Central Consolidated Schools | 4,996 | $17,904 | 13% | 31% | 72% |
| Los Alamos Public Schools | 3,709 | $12,646 | 47% | 58% | 91% |
| Artesia Public Schools | 3,701 | $11,580 | 29% | 42% | 89% |
| Belen Consolidated Schools | 3,581 | $13,063 | 19% | 28% | 76% |
| Lovington Public Schools | 3,460 | $12,999 | — | — | 74% |
| Grants-Cibola County Schools | 3,178 | $14,955 | 14% | 22% | 67% |
| Española Municipal Schools | 2,988 | $14,886 | — | — | 63% |
| Bernalillo Public Schools | 2,852 | $15,183 | 8% | 18% | 60% |
| Portales Municipal Schools | 2,659 | $13,291 | 22% | 37% | ≈77% |
| Bloomfield Municipal Schools | 2,568 | $12,945 | 13% | 21% | 77% |
| Aztec Municipal Schools | 2,563 | $12,518 | 16% | 28% | 76% |
| Taos Municipal Schools | 2,406 | $15,079 | 19% | 33% | 72% |
| Silver City Consolidated Schools | 2,306 | $13,911 | 20% | 33% | ≈82% |
| Moriarty Municipal Schools | 2,287 | $12,676 | 18% | 33% | ≈77% |
| Ruidoso Municipal Schools | 1,830 | $12,251 | 21% | 39% | ≈87% |
| Pojoaque Valley Public Schools | 1,749 | $11,596 | 10% | 28% | ≈77% |
| West Las Vegas Public Schools | 1,530 | $16,317 | 10% | 25% | ≈67% |
| Socorro Consolidated Schools | 1,474 | $16,102 | 12% | 21% | ≈67% |
| Truth or Consequences Schools | 1,254 | $14,645 | 24% | 32% | ≈77% |
| Hatch Valley Municipal Schools | 1,212 | $14,653 | 14% | 33% | ≈77% |
| Las Vegas City Public Schools | 1,209 | $16,490 | 17% | 31% | ≈82% |
| Zuni Public Schools | 1,152 | $20,951 | 4% | 12% | ≈72% |
| Cobre Consolidated Schools | 1,079 | $17,768 | 13% | 33% | ≈87% |
| Tucumcari Public Schools | 891 | $14,218 | 17% | 35% | ≈77% |
| Raton Public Schools | 843 | $13,827 | 14% | 24% | ≈75% |
| Tularosa Municipal Schools | 809 | $17,163 | 20% | 32% | ≈75% |
| Dexter Consolidated Schools | 794 | $16,470 | 17% | 23% | ≈82% |
| Eunice Municipal Schools | 744 | $13,500 | 9% | 22% | ≈87% |
| Cuba Independent Schools | 667 | $25,226 | 4% | 16% | ≈82% |
| Loving Municipal Schools | 623 | $12,966 | — | — | ≈85% |
| Santa Rosa Consolidated Schools | 608 | $19,059 | 17% | 31% | ≈95% |
| Texico Municipal Schools | 555 | $13,357 | 41% | 62% | ≈95% |
| Estancia Municipal Schools | 547 | $18,214 | 15% | 30% | ≈85% |
| Dulce Independent Schools | 544 | $23,259 | 2% | 10% | ≈75% |
| Jal Public Schools | 508 | $14,624 | 7% | 13% | ≈75% |
| Pecos Independent Schools | 505 | $16,737 | — | — | ≈95% |
| Capitan Municipal Schools | 469 | $15,375 | 24% | 49% | ≈75% |
| Lordsburg Municipal Schools | 453 | $17,868 | 14% | 29% | ≈90% |
| Mora Independent Schools | 410 | $22,932 | 12% | 24% | ≈85% |
| Cimarron Public Schools | 404 | $19,584 | 18% | 42% | ≈85% |
| Clayton Public Schools | 385 | $17,530 | 36% | 39% | ≈15% |
| Cloudcroft Municipal Schools | 384 | $17,862 | 28% | 48% | ≈95% |
| Chama Valley Independent Schools | 375 | $17,669 | — | — | ≈90% |
| Hagerman Municipal Schools | 374 | $18,390 | — | — | ≈65% |
| Jemez Valley Public Schools | 361 | $19,111 | — | — | ≈70% |
| Peñasco Independent Schools | 330 | $18,897 | 10% | 36% | ≈70% |
| Tatum Municipal Schools | 310 | $16,410 | 25% | 41% | ≈90% |
| Questa Independent Schools | 297 | $18,027 | 7% | 23% | ≈75% |
| Logan Municipal Schools | 284 | $16,451 | 24% | 47% | ≈75% |
| Magdalena Municipal Schools | 280 | $28,154 | — | — | ≈75% |
| Melrose Public Schools | 267 | $15,288 | ≈22% | ≈57% | — |
| Fort Sumner Municipal Schools | 260 | $19,512 | ≈27% | ≈52% | ≈90% |
| Mesa Vista Consolidated Schools | 243 | $19,210 | ≈3% | ≈27% | ≈90% |
| Floyd Municipal Schools | 224 | $15,125 | ≈22% | ≈32% | ≈90% |
| Mountainair Public Schools | 222 | $22,887 | ≈12% | ≈37% | ≈85% |
| Dora Consolidated Schools | 219 | $16,941 | ≈32% | ≈47% | ≈90% |
| Jemez Mountain Public Schools | 181 | $26,453 | ≈12% | ≈32% | ≈30% |
| Grady Municipal Schools | 176 | $17,489 | ≈27% | ≈57% | — |
| Elida Municipal Schools | 170 | $18,835 | ≈27% | ≈32% | — |
| Animas Public Schools | 165 | $19,964 | — | — | ≈90% |
| Quemado Independent Schools | 162 | $26,401 | ≈17% | ≈27% | ≈70% |
| Carrizozo Municipal Schools | 146 | $22,356 | ≈12% | ≈37% | — |
| Hondo Valley Public Schools | 135 | $29,548 | ≈8% | ≈22% | — |
| Lake Arthur Municipal Schools | 125 | $26,192 | — | — | — |
| Maxwell Municipal Schools | 119 | $23,840 | — | — | — |
| Springer Municipal Schools | 117 | $27,709 | — | — | — |
| San Jon Municipal Schools | 110 | $24,455 | ≈42% | ≈52% | — |
| Reserve Independent Schools | 109 | $28,119 | ≈37% | ≈42% | — |
| Des Moines Municipal Schools | 97 | $25,784 | ≈57% | ≈72% | — |
| Mosquero Municipal Schools | 95 | $23,095 | ≈30% | ≈30% | — |
| Wagon Mound Public Schools | 80 | $33,425 | ≈15% | ≈15% | — |
| House Municipal Schools | 75 | $29,947 | ≈15% | ≈35% | ≈50% |
| Corona Municipal Schools | 73 | $37,562 | ≈45% | ≈65% | — |
| Roy Municipal Schools | 71 | $30,704 | — | — | — |
| Vaughn Municipal Schools | 57 | $39,596 | ≈5% | ≈25% | — |
Sources
Spending and enrollment come from the NCES School District Finance Survey (F-33) for fiscal year 2022. Proficiency and graduation rates come from EDFacts for school year 2018-19. Districts are matched to ZIP codes through the NCES EDGE geographic relationship file. Nothing on this page is estimated or modelled: a figure is read from a federal source file or it is left blank.
Questions About New Mexico School Spending
How much does the average New Mexico school district spend per student?
The middle, or median, New Mexico district spent $15,079 per student in fiscal year 2022, $536 above the national median of $14,543. The median is the better summary here: a few very small districts spend several times what a large one does, and an average would follow them. That median covers all 141 districts the state reports. Across the 89 a ZIP code can reach, which are the ones listed on this page, 299,234 students account for $4.0 billion of current spending.
Which New Mexico districts spend the most and least per student?
Vaughn Municipal Schools reports the highest figure in the table at $39,596 per student for 57 students, and Carlsbad Municipal Schools the lowest at $10,509 for 8,835 students. Enrollment is the denominator, so a small district with one building and one bus route honestly produces a high figure; read the two columns together.
Why are some New Mexico districts missing from this table?
New Mexico has 141 districts with federal finance data and 89 of them appear here. The rest are placed in no ZIP code by the federal boundary file, which is normal for charter and virtual school districts that have no attendance area, so there is no ZIP code a reader could use to find them.
Does this money follow a child who is homeschooled?
No. The figure is what the district spends on a seat in its own schools, funded from local property tax, state formula aid and federal programs. Withdrawing a child removes the child from the count rather than sending the money home. TheHomeschoolingCompany is $1,788 for one student for a school year by comparison, less for each child after the first.
Look Up Your Own District
Enter a ZIP code and the calculator returns the district that serves it, what it spends per student, how its students score, and what the same school year costs at home.
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Spending Per Student in Other States
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