New Mexico’s natural gas boom fuels schools while threatening student health

Hundreds of New Mexico students living near oil and gas fields are missing school and struggling academically due to chronic exposure to fossil fuel emissions, even as the industry funds much of the state’s education system.

Ed Williams reports for Searchlight New Mexico and Susan Montoya Bryan reports for The Associated Press.

In short:

• Around 29,500 students in 74 New Mexico schools are exposed to air pollution from oil and gas wells operating within a mile of their campuses, with documented health issues including headaches, nausea, and respiratory symptoms.
• Independent studies found that students at Lybrook Elementary School, located near 17 gas wells, are exposed to benzene and hydrogen sulfide levels high enough to cause chronic health effects, contributing to extremely low academic performance.
• While the oil and gas industry provides $1.7 billion to New Mexico’s K-12 education, local officials and researchers remain divided over whether the associated air pollution should prompt drilling limits near schools.

Key quote:

“This kind of air pollution has a real, measurable effect on students.”

— Mike Gilraine, professor of economics at Simon Fraser University who studies links between air quality and student performance.

Why this matters:

Air pollution from oil and gas operations poses a growing, under-acknowledged risk to schoolchildren across the United States, especially in energy-rich states like New Mexico. Kids are more vulnerable to toxins like benzene and fine particulate matter, which can damage developing brains and lungs. Chronic exposure can cause or exacerbate respiratory illnesses, disrupt sleep and focus, and lead to missed school days — all of which affect educational outcomes. While fossil fuel revenues prop up public education budgets, the same industry may be undermining student performance, particularly in rural, low-income, and Indigenous communities. With minimal air monitoring in drilling zones and limited regulatory protections, families are left to navigate an impossible tradeoff between economic survival and their children’s health.

Related: New Mexico lawmakers struggle to regulate oil and gas amid federal rollbacks