espanola would be a step down, Santa Fe is better as for Rio Rancho I don’t know

It is like any other city where some schools are very good and others are bad. For older students, a lot is also what they make of it. Do they sign up for challenging classes or sign up for classes that they know they can cruise through or sign up with teachers that are known for easy grading.

Also, the crime rate here is really not bad in comparison with other cities. Again, like any city, that depends on what area of town you live in.

Rio Rancho’s school system is fairly new, having split off from the Albuquerque school system a few years ago and they don’t have the budgets or the resources that APS does. They have too many students and have been doubling up on one or two of their schools with one school’s worth of kids having morning classes the other having afternoon classes. I’m not sure if they have the new school done and have stopped that or not.

I don’t know anything about Santa Fe’s schools, other than the fact that when they rate the schools across the state Los Alamos and several of the Albuquerque schools usually rate the highest in academic testing. One drawback to Santa Fe is that it has a much higher cost of living. And as a smaller city has less to do.