Editorial: APS right to require annual residency proof

Albuquerque Public Schools is the 34th-largest school district in the nation. Each year it spends around $600 million in public money on 139 schools that employ 11,500 individuals responsible for ensuring the education of more than 90,000 students.

That is a daunting balancing act of matching resources with needs that requires as much statistically precise information as possible in this mobile world. So while APS officials and employees should never lose sight of the fact each student is a flesh-and-blood human being, with myriad family successes and challenges, much of striking that balance comes down to numbers.

And when a school is so severely overcrowded — or for that matter underutilized — that the learning environment is compromised, APS officials have to address it.

The APS Board of Education is considering revising its policy regarding proof of residency, from just at initial enrollment to annually. The proposal comes from overcrowding at North Star Elementary, where 743 students are crammed into a school built for 663. In fact, the school has been at or over capacity since it opened in 2006, while just three miles away, Double Eagle Elementary, which has similar test scores, is underenrolled.

Board member Analee Maestas has voted against an annual proof-of-residency requirement in committee, citing a concern for homeless and immigrant families. Her point is well taken, and APS must include some mechanism in its policy for those families so those students stay in school.

But families are already required to register students every year. And annual proof-of-residency requirements for children are nothing new — everything from Little League to county summer camp require it in order to manage resources equitably. More importantly, APS has an obligation to all its students, teachers and educational assistants not to cram them into classrooms like sardines, and to its taxpayers not to let entire campuses be under-used. That’s why Maestas’ call to forgo a district policy and just “look at the individual schools where there’s a problem” doesn’t work.

The board passed the annual residency requirement in committee 4-3 this week. It should fine-tune it to accommodate special circumstances and put it into policy as part of its duty to be a responsible steward of tax dollars while delivering each of its students the best education it can provide.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.