Districts question liability in special-ed shortfall
Some lawmakers critical of state’s handling of situation
The state Public Education Department, facing steep penalties from the federal government for underfunding special-education programs since at least 2010, now says dozens of school districts across New Mexico are liable for part of the funding failure over a five-year period and must pay back a collective $570,000.
School leaders and lawmakers are questioning, however, whether the state agency can hold the districts responsible for the errors, how it calculated the payments due and why it waited until just last month to alert districts of the charges.
Some lawmakers blasted the agency for how it has handled the ongoing special-education funding crisis.
Rep. Elizabeth Thomson, D-Albuquerque, said the department ignored the issue “until it became the monster it has become today.”
The U.S. Department of Education has been warning the state for the last few years that it could face the loss of millions of dollars in future grants to supplement special education at public schools because the state had failed in the past to invest enough of its own money in the programs to qualify for an annual federal funding match. State officials have said they are negotiating with the federal agency to reduce what legislators and educators say could be as much as $85 million in penalties.
The issue didn’t become a problem for schools until September, when Paul Aguilar, then-deputy secretary of finance and operations for the state Public Education Department, sent letters to 55 of the state’s 89 districts, notifying them that they had up to two years to pay back their share of the special-education shortfall.
For some districts, such as Socorro, the hit was as little as $1,900. For others, like Mosquero, it was as high as $32,000. Santa Fe Public Schools owes a little more than $5,000, Pojoaque close to $20,000, Rio Rancho $23,000 and Los Alamos $17,000.
“Thirty thousand dollars — that’s a teacher,” said state Rep. Linda Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, an outgoing member of the Santa Fe school board, during a Tuesday hearing on the issue at the state Capitol held by the Legislative Education Study Committee.
Aguilar had emailed the notices to school districts late on the afternoon of his last day before retiring, further upsetting school leaders, many told lawmakers at the hearing.
The biggest complaint from school superintendents and Democratic lawmakers on the committee was a lack of clarity about how Public Education Department officials had determined the amount districts owed. Pojoaque Valley Superintendent Mel Morgan, for instance, showed legislators a sheet comparing the state agency’s financial estimates with the district’s own calculations — a difference of tens of thousands of dollars.
“I really do need to know the details of the bill before I pay,” Morgan said.
Santa Fe Superintendent Veronica García said she also would “appreciate more transparency” from the department on how it came up with a $5,000 liability for the local district.
Some questioned if the state has a right to force districts to comply with its request to ante up the back pay.
Rachel Gudgel, director of the Legislative Education Study Committee, said based on her research of the issue, “The state is responsible.”
At the very least, some lawmakers said, the state should accept responsibility for half the money.
In early 2016, then-Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera said she had made a deal with the U.S. Department of Education that would wipe out the potential debt. But that agreement required the New Mexico Legislature to provide an additional $9 million a year for five years to support special-education services — a funding measure that failed to pass.
Federal documents back Skandera’s claim that she was attempting to reach a settlement with the U.S. Department of Education, but details of the proposal were unclear.
The U.S. Education Department did not respond to questions from The New Mexican about the proposed deal Tuesday, but a spokeswoman from the state Public Education Department said in an email that a deal was approved by the federal agency and is now awaiting review by the U.S. Justice Department.
Still, the State Auditor’s Office released a report earlier this year sharply criticizing the Public Education Department over its efforts to prevent the loss of what was then calculated as $63 million in federal special-education funds. The audit said there was no evidence at the time that the department had a deal in place with the federal government over the funding penalties.
According to some lawmakers and educators who spoke during Tuesday’s hearing, the projected amount at stake has since increased by at least $20 million.
During the hearing, Trujillo asked Matt Montaño, a Public Education Department official who will succeed Aguilar in assuming oversight of specialeducation funding, if the state had reached a deal with the federal agency.
“That’s not something that has been talked about,” Montaño said.