Supreme court grants review in New Mexico school finance case
The U.S. Supreme Court has granted review in Zuni Public School District No. 89 v. Department of Education, No. 05-1508, a case involving a challenge by the Gallup-McKinley County and Zuni school districts to New Mexico's public school funding formula and how it treat federal impact aid. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, in an evenly divided en banc vote, upheld the state’s funding formula. In an en banc vote, all of the court’s judges participate, rather than just a panel. Pursuant to federal law, the two school districts receive federal impact aid that
goes to districts hurt financially because of their limited ability to raise local revenue. Much of the districts’ areas lies on nontaxable acreage, such as American Indian reservations or national forests, which limits schools' ability to raise money through property taxes for school construction and renovation. Under the federal impact aid law, the state is permitted to offset its contribution to school districts by the amount of federal impact aid those districts receive. However, the Zuni and Gallup-McKinley County contend the state took an inappropriate proportion of the federal money into consideration when determining the state aid amount. Gallup-McKinley County Superintendent Karen White, whose district has been appealing the funding formula since 1999, says the state would owe the district over $132 million in back payments if the challenge succeeds. The Zuni district began the suit several years ago over a state funding formula that took 95% of federal funds earmarked for local districts and redistributed them for school operating costs. The Gallup schools later joined the lawsuit, which seeks to have some, if not all, the impact aid left with local districts.
Albuquerque Tribune
By Associated Press
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