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Legislation and Regulation Keyed to Eskridge, 1st Ed.
Zuni Public School District No. 89 v. Department of Education
Citation:
550 U.S. 81, 127 S.Ct. 1534, 167 L.Ed.2d 449 (2007)Facts
The federal Impact Aid program provides financial assistance to school districts affected by federal activities, such as those containing tax-exempt federal land. States are generally prohibited from offsetting this federal aid by reducing state aid to those districts, unless the Secretary of Education certifies that the state has an equalized school funding system. To determine equalization, the statute instructs the Secretary to compare the highest and lowest per-pupil expenditures among districts, disregarding districts “with per-pupil expenditures above the 95th percentile or below the 5th percentile of such expenditures in the State.” For nearly 30 years, the Department of Education had interpreted this to mean ranking districts by per-pupil expenditure but identifying the cutoff points based on student population (excluding districts containing the top and bottom 5% of the state’s students). Using this methodology, the Secretary certified that New Mexico’s funding system was equalized, allowing the state to reduce aid to districts receiving Impact Aid. Zuni Public School District challenged this interpretation, arguing that the statute required ranking districts by per-pupil expenditure and simply excluding the top and bottom 5% of districts, regardless of student population.
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