WASHINGTON, D.C. - The United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments tomorrow in the case of three regional school districts, including the Grants/Cibola County School District, in a lawsuit regarding the disbursement of federal Impact Aid funds to New Mexico schools.

The suit is against the United States Department of Education for allowing a state “equalization” formula, which permits the Impact Aid funds to be added into a common pool of money that is then disbursed to all qualifying state school districts.

Impact Aid funds are provided by the federal government to school districts that encompass large tracts of federal land, such as Indian reservations, national parks and military bases, which cannot be taxed by counties.

Grants/Cibola County School District has joined the Zuni School District and the Gallup-McKinley County School District in the case. All three districts have high numbers of Native American students who live on reservation lands but attend district schools.

The school districts contend that the Impact Aid funds should stay in the district whose students generated them. The State of New Mexico argues that administrative guidelines from the U.S. Department of Education allow it to pool the money.

Attorneys for the school districts claim that Congress did not give the U.S. Department of Education the power to set up the “equalization” plans that states are now implementing.

In a supporting brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in November, the school districts raised the following issues:

. Two radically different Impact Aid formulas have emerged - one authorized by Congress and another by the U.S. Secretary of Education.

. The Secretary of Education does not have the authority to substitute his policy choices for those of Congress.

. The controlling rules on statutory construction forbid the use of the Secretary's formula because Congress required another one.

. The Secretary has no implied authority to adopt a different formula than that of Congress.

These are the issues the Supreme Court Justices are likely to question the attorneys about during the oral phase of the case.

The school districts are asking the high court to reverse the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling in favor of the Secretary's equalization formula by ruling it inconsistent with the 1994 federal law. They also ask that New Mexico's operational funding be declared not equalized.

Friend-of-the-court briefs have been filed in support of the State of New Mexico by several state school districts and the state of Alaska, another recipient of Impact Aid.

Santa Fe attorney Ronald VanAmberg, who represents the Zuni School District, will argue the case for the plaintiffs. A final opinion will not be released for several months.

By Diane Fowler