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Bernalillo County · New Mexico

Albuquerque, NM public schools

Enrollment, school count, staffing and per-pupil spending for Albuquerque Public Schools — federal education data, not a star rating.

Yellow public school bus parked at dusk, illustrating local school district data

Quick answer

Albuquerque Public Schools is the primary public district for Albuquerque, NM. It enrolls 79,805 students in 176 schools with 5,794 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $14,476 per pupil, 16% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
79,805NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
176Operating school count
Students per teacher
13.8Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$14,476Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Albuquerque

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
18.4%
$214,948,000
State revenue
73%
$853,963,000
Federal revenue
8.6%
$100,212,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Albuquerque property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 50 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Albuquerque numbers

What the 2021-22 NCES and FY2020 Census finance numbers say about this district.

$14,476 per pupil is 16% below the $17,320 metro median; only 30% of tracked districts spend less. Instruction takes 50 cents of each dollar — $7,287 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

The state carries this district: 73% of revenue arrives from NM state aid and only 18.4% is raised locally. Budget swings here follow state formula changes, not local property values. Federal aid contributes 8.6%, near the typical share for a large urban district.

79,805 students across 176 schools averages 453 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). The 13.8:1 student-to-teacher ratio is ordinary for this set of districts (median 15.2:1). It counts all FTE teachers district-wide, so actual class sizes run higher.

Worth flagging: with state aid at 73% of revenue, comparisons to districts in other states say more about NM's funding formula than about Albuquerque itself.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Albuquerque Public Schools is a large city district; figures are the district total (LEAID 3500060) and individual schools inside it vary widely. Independently authorised charter schools, private schools and regional vocational programs are counted separately by NCES and are not in these totals. Enrollment is the 2021-22 NCES collection; dollars are the FY2020 Census F-33 survey, the latest complete national release. The two years differ, so per-pupil spending is a stable indicator rather than a live budget line.

Other Albuquerque datasets on this site.

Statewide: New Mexico cities · New Mexico ZIP codes · New Mexico sales tax · New Mexico counties

Source: NCES Common Core of Data + Census F-33, via Urban Institute Education Data · rates as published for 2021-22 / FY2020

NCES LEAID 3500060. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.