On this fall’s ballots in addition to votes for mayor, city council, and school board, local voters will be asked to decide on a $350 million bond for Albuquerque Public Schools. These bonds (another name for debt which is typically used to pay for construction and other infrastructure) usually pass, but I hope voters will consider whether the District really needs this year’s massive bond measure.
For starters, the student population at Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) continues to plummet. Student enrollment has dropped by more than 20,000 since 2016, going from approximately 85,336 in FY16 to an estimated 64,995 in FY25. Along with spending growth at the state level this decline in its student population has led to massive spending growth on a per-pupil basis which now sits at $35,384 per-pupil.
Demographers see no sudden increase in the number of young people attending school in New Mexico or APS specifically. That’s in part because birth rates nationwide are down and show no signs of reversing course anytime soon. There has been a particularly pronounced decline in the number of young people in New Mexico from 2020 to 2024. During that time frame New Mexico saw the 2nd-biggest decline among US states in its 0-18 demographic according to the Census Bureau…