Equal aid no matter your zip code
“The state of New Mexico has attempted to become equalized, or distribute funding to students based off students’ individual needs,” Gallup-McKinley County Schools Superintendent Mike Hyatt said. “The goal is that students are not treated differently based on where they live in New Mexico.”
Hyatt opened the town hall Oct. 22 by reciting Article XII of the State of New Mexico Constitution, which says students with the same needs throughout New Mexico should receive the same funding, facilities, and access.
The battle for Impact Aid is one that rages all year long. Even after school districts in non-property rich areas like Gallup and Zuni receive their aid, they continue to raise the matter of their districts receiving either insufficient or lesser funding than districts in property rich areas like Albuquerque or Las Cruces.
Hyatt listed several examples of the disparity between property rich and property poor districts.
Schools in poor districts are more likely to remodel existing school buildings rather than build new buildings like schools in rich districts.
Property poor schools will likely have smaller classrooms and fewer, or no, special needs spaces or language and culture classrooms. And those schools will be designed in ways to save money while having low funding for maintenance and upkeep.
The reality of New Mexico’s school funding, according to Jvanna Hanks, assistant superintendent of business services for GMCS, means school facilities across the state are vastly different in terms of infrastructure and classroom technology.
This also means the Indian Education Act is not fully funded, Hanks added.
“For Impact Aid districts, we’re likely using our operational money for capital outlay needs, taking away from the classroom,” Hanks said. “[We’re] spending more on the classroom than in the classroom.”
THE STATE OF IMPACT AID
Since schools in property poor areas like Gallup don’t receive as much tax support as those in property rich districts, the less affluent districts have to make decisions that will stretch their tax dollars as far as they can go.
This is where Impact Aid comes in. Impact Aid is federal funding in the form of a grant for government entities like public schools who do not have the ability to raise property tax dollars, because the entity exists on non-taxable lands, like tribal lands.
Since school districts in Gallup and Zuni either exist on tribal lands or have students who live primarily on tribal land, they should receive more Impact Aid than districts that receive tax support like in Albuquerque or Las Cruces.
But complications arise when credits come into play.
Back in March, Hyatt explained that the history of this aid goes back to the 1970s, when a property tax was introduced.
At that time, New Mexico schools generated a mill levy of roughly $8.92 for every $1,000 of taxable property the school was on, because every property owner in the county was pitching in, he said.
But then there was a shift in the 1980s, when the property tax was largely replaced by the Impact Aid, Hyatt said. The amount of property tax New Mexico schools were pulling in took a sharp decline to $0.50 for every $1,000 of taxable property, for a 94 percent decrease.
“This was the state taking advantage of the [rural] counties back then, because they didn’t have the political clout to stop it,” he said.
The school districts in a 1998 lawsuit, including GMCS and Grants-Cibola county schools, as well as many members of the Native American community, the group most affected by Impact Aid, supported SB 170.
SB170 was postponed indefinitely during the 2019 Legislative Session.
For the 2019 school year, Gallup received about $30 million in impact aid. This means the state claimed about $22.3 million to redistribute across the state, which is the largest contribution to state credits for the year.
This effectively means the state reduced their funding for GMCS by about $22.3 million and redistributed this amount to schools across the state.
As Hyatt explains it, districts that receive the most Impact Aid also have the largest chunks of Impact Aid claimed by the state.
“This part of the state pays the most [in Impact Aid], it’s pretty significant,” Hyatt said.
In all, the state claimed credit for about $77.6 million in Impact Aid. Twenty-nine percent of that figure came from Gallup. Central Consolidated School District follows GMCS with $17.4 million in aid claimed, or about 23 percent. Zuni contributed about $5.5 million, or 7 percent. Then there is Albuquerque, which contributed $4 million, or 5 percent.
Since the money claimed by the state is redistributed based on student need, this means Albuquerque Public Schools, the largest district in the state, receives most of the aid, almost a quarter of it, Hyatt said.
This means those property rich districts are more likely to oppose bills and legislature that would reduce the amount of Impact Aid the state can claim and redistribute to them. If Gallup were to keep the $22 million credited by the state, property rich districts like Albuquerque would lose the redistributed aid.
“You get the idea of why people [in rich districts] are up in arms about this,” Hyatt continued. “They’re so heavily reliant on aid from this part of the state, or parts on tribal lands at a tribal rate.”
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
Hyatt said the district has tried a number of solutions over the years to combat the issues relating to impact aid.
“We’ve gone to several different legislative committees to talk about what the problem is,” Hyatt said. “A lot of people in the state have no idea what is going on in regards to impact aid because it is so complex.”
The district has tried to lobby at a state and federal level, Hyatt said. This is the first time New Mexico schools have collectively tried to use their power to propose and support legislation to make state funding changes, he added.
GOVERNMENT INPUT
Wilfred Herrera, Laguna Pueblo governor, said what struck him most during the presentation was the reaction by the crowd.
He noted most people could be seen expressing one of two reactions to the information they heard. Either had a fist against their chin and an angry face, or they had a hand clasped over their mouth in shock.
“When you talk about impact aid, there’s a need to drill down on it with facilities, but I also encourage we talk about how much actually goes to students in the classroom,” Herrera said. “Facilities, materials, teacher development, special needs, I think we need to understand what the impact aid actually impacted.”
Mark Thompson, first lieutenant governor for Acoma Pueblo, offered his thanks to Sens. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, and Clemente Sanchez, D-Grants, for advocating on behalf of property poor schools for impact aid.
Both Muñoz and Sanchez sponsored bills relating to impact aid during the 2019 Legislative Session.
“Our legislators are strong advocates on our behalf, and they’re doing their job and doing it well for us,” Thompson said.
Thompson said he believes everyone present at the town hall believes there should be changes, based on the same audience observations Herrera made.
“We need to take this type of discussion to Rio Rancho, Hobbs, and those places where we need to get the partners in the legislature to advocate on our behalf,” Thompson continued. “We have to get the votes where this thing is going to change.”
The real audience that needs to be convinced to push for change is the community in the property rich districts like Albuquerque and Las Cruces, Thompson said.
The next person to weigh in was Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer, who said he wants to help advocate at the highest level for impact aid because he sees the disparity Hyatt discussed.
“Let’s take the talk to the people,” Lizer said. “It’s going to take a collaborative effort. Zuni’s here, Laguna’s here, so I want to say the Navajo Nation’s here and we’re joining in this fight.”
Muñoz mentioned that impact aid has been a hot topic in his office for nearly two months.
“This is the first time in New Mexico that I’ve been here that we’ve had the money to fix this problem,” Muñoz said. “Now we have an opportunity, thanks to oil and gas, to fix it. This is the time to fix issues and problems.” He said he did not pick the fight for impact aid for political gain.
“It’s the right thing to do for people, for kids,” he said. “The number one thing my father taught me was if you give a child an education, no one can ever take it away.”
Munoz also said it is important to create ways for people to voice their opinions and be heard where they have previously met opposition. “We have been in meetings where we were politely told to get out, because [other legislators] didn’t want to hear it,” Muñoz said. “They didn’t think this mattered.”
Through all the talk of how other districts take impact aid, Sanchez said it is important to remember they are not targeting any schools or students because of the issue.
“We don’t want to hurt any school district, because those are all students out there, too,” he said.
Sanchez said he and Muñoz are not going to let the issue go, but they will continue to need the support of everyone in the local community to continue this fight.
“We need community help and community input,” Sanchez said. “Not just from the school districts, we need the community there. We need kids, mothers and fathers and grandparents, cousins, everybody.”
PUBLIC REACTION
Nicole Walker, of Window Rock, thanked the tribal governors for coming to GMCS for the town hall. She also asked where they were 25 years ago as she recounted an event that took place near the premises.
“The National Native American Youth Coalition protested right outside,” Walker said. “Number one [issue] they protested for was impact aid. How come we never got an answer?”
Walker said she wants to be remembered as a warrior because she is passionate about issues concerning her fellow Natives and wants to rally alongside the governors and legislators.
“Now I will stand beside you guys, I will be a voice,” Walker said. “We will be there to support you. I will get my Navajo citizens involved because this issue is very important.”
By Cody Begaye
Sun Correspondent
