While the U.S. is one of the most educated countries in the world, it doesn’t provide the same quality elementary school or secondary school education to all students. In many states, more affluent school districts receive a greater amount of funding per student than poorer districts.
Discrepancies between the rich and poor have been exacerbated even more this year by the COVID-19 pandemic. As states decide whether their school districts will have in-person learning this fall, studies show that low-income students will suffer the greatest “learning loss” due to partial or total remote learning. One contributing factor is that people in low-income districts are less likely to have the technological resources they need.
States that provide equitable funding to all school districts can help prevent poor students from having lower graduation rates, lower rates of pursuing higher education and smaller future incomes than their wealthy peers. The difference is dramatic: College graduates have $460 - $1,154 higher median weekly earnings than people with a high school diploma and no college experience, depending on the degree.
New Mexico has the 8th least equitable school districts in the U.S. overall, but some districts within the state are fairer than others. To find out where school funding is distributed most equitably, WalletHub scored 84 districts in New Mexico based on two metrics: average household income and expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools per pupil. Read on for the district ranking and a complete description of our methodology.
Main Findings
Note: For visual purposes, we included only the top 7 school districts by enrollment from each category. Rank 1 on the “Expenditures Ranking” means highest expenditures and Rank 1 on “Income Ranking” means lowest income..
Most & Least Equitable School Districts in New Mexico
| Rank* | School District | Score | Expeditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Schools per Pupil | Income by School District |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moriarty School District 8 | 0.84 | $9,501 | $56,835 |
| 2 | Hobbs School District | 1.27 | $8,100 | $61,256 |
| 3 | Bernalillo School District | 2.66 | $11,555 | $51,397 |
| 4 | Rio Rancho Public Schools | 3.06 | $8,020 | $62,259 |
| 5 | Carrizozo School District | 3.08 | $16,399 | $34,300 |
| 6 | Melrose School District | 3.40 | $12,794 | $47,963 |
| 7 | Capitan School District | 3.75 | $11,885 | $47,668 |
| 8 | Animas School District | 5.45 | $16,542 | $37,500 |
| 9 | Artesia School District | 5.94 | $9,399 | $54,255 |
| 10 | Cloudcroft School District | 7.18 | $11,614 | $47,024 |
| 11 | Cimarron School District | 8.23 | $15,636 | $41,425 |
| 12 | Hagerman School District | 8.28 | $13,382 | $41,210 |
| 13 | Mora Independent School District | 8.50 | $17,849 | $27,604 |
| 14 | Tatum School District | 8.96 | $12,387 | $51,563 |
| 15 | Lovington School District | 9.20 | $9,005 | $54,056 |
| 16 | Jal Public School Municipal District | 10.39 | $11,010 | $56,337 |
| 17 | San Jon School District | 11.89 | $16,375 | $40,750 |
| 18 | Tularosa School District | 12.10 | $12,680 | $41,703 |
| 19 | Jemez Valley School District | 13.44 | $16,194 | $41,955 |
| 20 | Farmington School District 5 | 14.02 | $8,062 | $54,854 |
| 21 | Albuquerque School District | 14.20 | $9,031 | $51,848 |
| 22 | Zuni School District | 15.41 | $13,648 | $37,365 |
| 23 | Bloomfield School District | 15.88 | $9,013 | $51,186 |
| 24 | Magdalena School District 12 | 16.93 | $17,205 | $25,957 |
| 25 | Aztec School District | 16.95 | $8,872 | $51,158 |
| 26 | Santa Fe City School District | 17.16 | $10,455 | $60,900 |
| 27 | Pojoaque Valley School District | 18.31 | $9,268 | $49,380 |
| 28 | Questa School District | 18.74 | $15,008 | $31,832 |
| 29 | Texico School District | 19.01 | $10,827 | $44,367 |
| 30 | Loving School District | 22.24 | $11,361 | $41,375 |
| 31 | Central Consolidated School District | 22.44 | $11,691 | $40,291 |
| 32 | Logan Municipal Schools | 24.11 | $12,041 | $38,520 |
| 33 | Lordsburg School District | 25.45 | $12,637 | $36,146 |
| 34 | Los Lunas School District | 26.20 | $8,683 | $47,786 |
| 35 | Eunice Public School District | 26.40 | $9,244 | $68,500 |
| 36 | Dexter School District | 26.92 | $11,764 | $38,160 |
| 37 | Dora Schools District | 27.23 | $13,411 | $56,250 |
| 38 | Carlsbad School District | 27.48 | $9,762 | $67,395 |
| 39 | Mountainair School District | 28.22 | $16,520 | $47,269 |
| 40 | Dulce Independent School District | 28.52 | $18,301 | $42,009 |
| 41 | Clayton School District | 28.59 | $12,057 | $36,563 |
| 42 | Clovis School District | 28.89 | $8,856 | $46,117 |
| 43 | Ft Sumner School District | 30.02 | $13,685 | $31,028 |
| 44 | Hondo Valley School District | 30.65 | $22,984 | $28,750 |
| 45 | Springer School District | 30.81 | $18,815 | $41,429 |
| 46 | Belen School District | 30.90 | $10,170 | $41,288 |
| 47 | Silver Consolidated School District | 31.11 | $10,297 | $40,811 |
| 48 | Cobre Consolidated School District | 31.55 | $12,261 | $34,685 |
| 49 | Alamogordo School District | 32.50 | $8,668 | $45,147 |
| 50 | Ruidoso School District | 32.52 | $9,329 | $43,140 |
| 51 | Floyd School District | 32.64 | $14,628 | $54,875 |
| 52 | Elida School District | 33.12 | $17,547 | $46,250 |
| 53 | Cuba Independent School District 20 | 33.71 | $15,962 | $22,571 |
| 54 | Pecos Independent School District | 34.08 | $11,801 | $35,000 |
| 55 | Socorro Consolidated School District | 34.27 | $10,685 | $38,292 |
| 56 | Taos Municipal School District | 34.82 | $10,129 | $39,742 |
| 57 | Maxwell School District | 35.17 | $20,965 | $36,786 |
| 58 | Roswell Independent Schools | 36.22 | $8,656 | $43,598 |
| 59 | Las Cruces School District | 36.70 | $8,912 | $42,620 |
| 60 | Grants-Cibola County Schools | 38.54 | $10,372 | $37,421 |
| 61 | Portales School District | 39.87 | $9,494 | $39,511 |
| 62 | Quemado Independent School District | 40.30 | $21,795 | $36,458 |
| 63 | Las Vegas City School District | 41.27 | $11,070 | $34,145 |
| 64 | Estancia Municipal School District | 41.37 | $13,121 | $27,901 |
| 65 | Gallup-Mckinley County Schools | 48.04 | $11,104 | $31,158 |
| 66 | Reserve Independent School District | 51.65 | $20,841 | $44,182 |
| 67 | Truth Or Consequences | 52.65 | $10,689 | $30,451 |
| 68 | Las Vegas West School District | 53.26 | $11,987 | $26,262 |
| 69 | Santa Rosa Consolidated School District | 56.29 | $12,245 | $24,190 |
| 70 | Lake Arthur School District | 58.20 | $21,080 | $46,250 |
| 71 | Grady School District 61 | 60.84 | $16,217 | $62,083 |
| 72 | Gadsden School District | 61.07 | $9,436 | $30,651 |
| 73 | House Municipal Schools | 62.21 | $25,364 | $35,000 |
| 74 | Raton School District | 62.96 | $9,496 | $29,665 |
| 75 | Deming School District | 66.88 | $9,701 | $27,377 |
| 76 | Tucumcari Public Schools | 67.41 | $10,248 | $25,493 |
| 77 | Vaughn School District | 67.54 | $29,971 | $23,333 |
| 78 | Des Moines School District | 73.47 | $23,333 | $45,938 |
| 79 | Hatch School District | 77.55 | $10,266 | $21,119 |
| 80 | Wagon Mound School District 12 | 99.53 | $34,029 | $24,688 |
| 81 | Roy School District | 109.16 | $35,490 | $24,375 |
| 82 | Los Alamos School District | 146.12 | $10,653 | $115,248 |
| 83 | Mosquero School District | 174.51 | $38,538 | $43,000 |
| 84 | Corona School District | 187.33 | $33,138 | $64,792 |
*1=Most Equitable
Methodology
In order to rank the states with the most and least equitable school districts, WalletHub first scored 12,919 school districts throughout the U.S. based on two metrics: average household income and expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools per pupil.
For expenditures, for each 1 percent above the state's average we removed 1 point from a base score of 50 points for each district. For household income, for each 1 percent above the state's average we added 1 point to a base score of 50 points for each district. The inverse was true for each 1 percent below the state's average.
The final score for each district was calculated by taking the absolute difference between the score for expenditures and the score for household income. We then ranked the districts based on the total score, with the lowest value, representing the most equitable, being ranked 1.
Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from of the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics.