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Wednesday, April 18, 2007

High Court Rejects N.M. Schools Claim

By Gabriela C. Guzman
Journal Capitol Bureau
    SANTA FE— In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the claim made by Zuni and Gallup-McKinley County public schools that New Mexico is unfairly deducting millions of dollars from their funding.
    At issue were U.S. Department of Education regulations that allow states to take credit for federal money received by "federally impacted" school districts, or districts located on tribal or federal lands that have little or no tax bases.
    About $50 million in such federal money is given annually to some of the state's school districts.
    The state took credit for— meaning it deducted— $35.8 million collectively from Zuni and Gallup-McKinley districts in the 2005-2006 school year.
    The northwestern New Mexico school districts say they need all of the funding from the state— their state appropriations without the federal money being subtracted— to adequately educate their predominately Native American student bodies.
    "It's disheartening," said Gallup-McKinley Superintendent Karen White. "The kids that live on the federal lands are not getting the benefits of that money. It's not gravy money," she said, referring to federal impact aid.
    New Mexico is one of three states allowed to take credit for federal impact aid under the federal education department's regulations.
    Writing for the court's majority, Justice Stephen Breyer said the formula used by the U.S. Department of Education to determine if a state is equalized, or equitable, in terms of educational funding is "reasonable."
    "New Mexico was therefore free to offset federal impact aid to individual districts by reducing state aid to those districts," Breyer wrote.
    Other justices joining the majority were Justices Samuel Alito, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy and John Paul Stevens.
    In the dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that a 1994 federal law, dictating to the education department how to determine if a state is equalized, and the subsequent regulations written by the department do not match.
    "To understand, one first must look beyond the smokescreen that the (majority) lays down with its repeated apologies for inexperience in statistics. ... This case is not a scary math problem; it is a straightforward matter of statutory interpretation," Scalia wrote.
    Others joining in the dissent were Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Justices David Souter and Clarence Thomas.
    Tuesday's decision ended an almost nine-year-long dispute over the way New Mexico takes credit for federal money received by 30 of its 89 school districts.
    "It validates that we do have an equitable funding formula," said New Mexico Education Secretary Veronica Garcia.
    In New Mexico, all revenue sources to fund public schools are effectively placed in the same pot and distributed to districts with what the state calls an equalization formula.
    Tuesday's decision left staff at the Zuni and Gallup-McKinley school districts wondering how, without the additional money, to deal with the issues of low academic performance and retaining the best teachers.
    Attracting teachers with higher salaries and building better teacher housing facilities were at the top of the lists for Zuni and Gallup-McKinley.
    "Being in isolated areas of New Mexico, it takes more to attract highly qualified teachers here," said Ernest Mackel, president of the Zuni school board. "We just can't compete."
    Garcia acknowledges the state's Native American students, like other minority groups, are lagging behind academically.
    About 28 percent of the state's Native American ninth-graders are reading at grade level, compared to 35 percent of the state's Hispanic students and 62 percent of white students.
    "I think we have a tremendous achievement gap," she said.
    Garcia said both districts have received state funding for additional academic programs.
    If the court had ruled in the districts' favor, she said, disparities in funding would have popped up all over the state.

E-MAIL writer Gabriela C. Guzman