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Mora, New Mexico - 4 schools
An equity score of 92/100 ranks Mora Independent Schools #3 of 98 districts in New Mexico (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $22,932 per pupil, Mora Independent Schools ranks #21 of 141 New Mexico districts by per-pupil spending (New Mexico districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
433
Total Enrollment
4
Schools
$22,932
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Mora Independent Schools operates 4 public schools serving 433 students, placing it among the smallest districts in New Mexico. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary, 1 high, 1 middle, 1 combined schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Mora County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $22,932 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 141 New Mexico districts by per-pupil spending. See how New Mexico compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 4.7% local, 67.4% state, and 27.9% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 92/100, ranked #3 of 98 in New Mexico against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 4 schools offering Advanced Placement (1 AP courses district-wide), a 157.3:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 30.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 95.7% Hispanic or Latino, 3.8% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Mora High, with a diversity index of 10.9/100.
Its largest campus is Mora Elementary, enrolling 151 students (38% of the district's total enrollment).
Mora Elementary accounts for 34.9% of all Mora Independent Schools student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Mora Independent Schools-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Mora Independent Schools has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 100.0% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Eligibility here is a supermajority of the population — well past the 75% concentration-grant threshold that unlocks extra funding on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Mora Independent Schools student-counselor ratio is 157:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Values this far below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
Mora Independent Schools chronic absenteeism rate is 30.4% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.