Funding challenge: School districts lose case
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against the Zuni and Gallup-McKinley County school districts, which had alleged the U.S. Department of Education unfairly deprived them of $20 million a year for their predominantly American Indian students.
The court, in a 5-4 decision, rejected the northwestern New Mexico districts' arguments that federal education officials deliberately shortchanged them by using the wrong public school funding formula.
The Zuni district, on Zuni Pueblo, and the adjacent Gallup-McKinley County Public Schools, which includes a large amount of Navajo land, argued that the federal government failed to follow a funding formula that provides aid for districts in which there is a large federal presence, such as a military base or Indian reservation, that makes it difficult to raise local tax dollars.
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