The New Mexico Public Education Department has been told to stop diverting millions of dollars in federal Impact Aid grants designated for specific school districts.
The decades-old program provides funding for districts nationwide to offset property tax losses from tribal lands, military bases, national forests and other tax-exempt federal lands within their boundaries, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.
The newspaper reports the state essentially has redistributed much of that aid - over $63 million in 2019 - and U.S. Department of Education has determined New Mexico wasn’t meeting an equity measurement required to redistribute federal aid.
Districts need the federal Impact Aid money to build and maintain facilities because they can’t raise enough construction funds through property taxes.
Under federal law, the difference in per-student spending between the public district or charter school with the highest rate in the state and the one with the lowest must not exceed 25 percent.
Impact Aid Program Director Marilyn Hall said fiscal year 2018 numbers show the Carlsbad Unified School District’s per-student spending was $7,438 while the Socorro Independent School District’s rate was $5,731 - a difference of nearly 30%.
Hall said that because of the disparity, New Mexico isn’t eligible to consider Impact Aid grants when determining state funding to districts.
Spokeswoman Nancy Martira said State Public Education Department officials “are still in the beginning of understanding how this finding may affect all New Mexico school districts.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.