New Mexico

The court continues to keep the case Zuni School District v. State, District Court of McKinley County, regarding funding for capital improvements, open.   Plaintiff school districts have not asked the court to act on this case recently.

Other equity lawsuits in New Mexico involve the interaction between federal and state aid for school districts.  As a result of the Federal government’s immunity to local property tax, school districts in which the primary land owner is the United States government often suffer from a substantial shortfall in revenue compared to other districts.  These districts receive Federal Impact Aid, intended to compensate local school districts for the decreased property tax revenue resulting from government landownership.  In New Mexico, however, that compensation scheme is undercut by the state funding formula, which reduces state aid to impacted schools by 75% of the Federal Impact Aid received.

In 2007, in Zuni School District v. Department of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court found that New Mexico’s Secretary of Education was not violating federal law by reducing state educational aid to the Zuni School District and other school districts receiving Federal Impact Aid.  This ruling could have potentially major consequences for education equity in those states where the federal government is a major landowner and where high-poverty populations live surrounded by federal land.

In 2012, the Zuni School District renewed its suit in state court, alleging that the state’s application of its funding formula unfairly withheld state funds even before Federal Impact Aid had been received.  The state’s motion to dismiss on sovereign immunity grounds has been rejected by the trial and appellate court, and the new challenge is scheduled to proceed.  This challenge is not to the state funding formula itself, but rather to the timing of payments; essentially the school district seeks to reclaim over a year of prematurely-withheld state funding.

In Zuni School District v. State, District Court of McKinley County, Case No. CV-98-14-II, low-property-wealth school districts sued the state, claiming that New Mexico’s system of funding capital improvements was unconstitutional because it relied on local property taxes and therefore created disparities based on district property wealth. The trial court granted partial summary judgment to plaintiffs in 1999 and ordered the state to establish and implement a uniform funding system for school facilities by July 2000.

The state adopted a new capital funding system intended to establish a standards-based, adequacy level for facilities in all districts. In January 2002 a special master reported that the state “ha[d] made great strides and efforts in an attempt to remedy the lack of capital funding for the school districts, especially the poor ones,” and in summer of 2002, over the plaintiffs’ objections, the court approved the special master's report.

However, in 2006, plaintiffs returned to court to challenge recently enacted legislation that dedicated $90 million for building new schools in high growth areas.  The plaintiffs alleged that the change would allow politically powerful school districts to sidestep the school construction funding system and reduce the funds available to low-wealth districts, in violation of uniformity that had been required in Zuni and embedded in the legislative response to the case.  The court held a hearing in March 2006 but did not issue any rulings.

In 2007, in Zuni School District v. Department of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court found that New Mexico’s Secretary of Education was not violating federal law by reducing state educational aid to the Zuni School District and other school districts receiving Federal Impact Aid.  This ruling could have potentially major consequences for education equity in those states where the federal government is a major landowner and where high-poverty populations live surrounded by federal land.

“A uniform system of free public schools sufficient for the education of, and open to, all the children of school age in the state shall be established and maintained.” N.M. Const. art. XII, § 1.

The implementing legislation for the program included findings that quality pre-K has a positive effect on children’s development and that it advances governmental interests.  

Pre-K services are available through public schools and nonpublic settings such as community care centers, Head Start programs, and family child care homes.  There is no income cap, however, 2/3 of enrolled children at each site must live in the attendance zone of a Title I elementary school. 

The program requires a minimum of 450 hours of classroom instruction. An additional 90 hours a year must be devoted to home visits, parent conferences, informational meetings, and other program-related activities for children and families.

New Mexico has another initiative, the Child Development Program, which offers family support services, home visits, and preschool education programs to at-risk children from birth to 3-years of age who do not qualify for other eligibility-based programs, although some programs can limit eligibility to specific risk factors. This program, however, serves less than 1% of the state’s 3-year-olds.  Therefore, NIEER no longer considers the program’s primary focus to be providing center-based preschool education for 3- and 4-year-olds, and thus it is not profiled in this report.

The funding for the pre-K program is awarded on a competitive grant basis with priority for funding given to programs in areas with schools with the highest percentages of students failing to meet No Child Left Behind adequacy standards in reading in math.

The pre-K program is funded through a general revenue appropriation that is divided equally and placed into two separate funds. The Public Education Department oversees the fund for pre-K programs operated by public schools and the Children, Youth and Families Department oversees the fund for programs operated by public and private childcare providers. Providers must submit a proposal for funding to one of these two departments.

New Mexico also allots state funds to support Head Start programs.

According to the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), New Mexico served 16% of all 4-year-olds in its state preschool program in 2009-2010.

Quality Standards

In addition to increasing the number of students served, New Mexico has also increased its meeting of quality benchmarks.  In 2005-2006, the program only met 5 out of the 10; in 2006-2007 and 2007-2008, it met 9 out of the 10; in the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years, New Mexico’s program met 8 benchmarks. 

The program has comprehensive early learning standards and requires that teachers have specialized training in Pre-K.  Teachers have at least 15 hours of in-service per year.  The  program has a limited class size, an appropriate student to teacher ratio, screening and referral services, site visits, and provides at least one meal a day to students.

However, the program does not require teachers’ assistants to have Child Development Associate degrees.  Teachers are not required to have Bachelor’s degrees.

Over the last five years, on an annual basis, New Mexico PreK has been evaluated for both process quality and program impact/child outcomes using child outcome data as well as classroom observation data.

All staff members were trained to use the New Mexico Pre-K Observational Assessment. 

The Public Education Department and the Children, Youth and Families Department to are required to prepare an annual report to the governor and legislature on the progress of the program.

New Mexico has also retained NIEER to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the Pre-Kindergarten Program as a whole.

New Mexico Statutes Annotated

New Mexico Administrative Code

New Mexico Department of Education

New Mexico PreK Program