U.S. v. Onslow County Bd. of Educ.
| Citation | 728 F.2d 628 |
| Decision Date | 28 February 1984 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 83-1573,83-1574,s. 83-1573 |
| Parties | 16 Ed. Law Rep. 717 UNITED STATES of America; Major Daniel M. Rowland, individually and as next friend of Mary Alice Rowland; Major Werner Hellmer, individually and as next friend of Werner K. Hellmer and Jessica R. Hellmer; Commander William Hicks, individually and as next friend of Tamara Hicks and Jason Hicks; Lieutenant Commander Harold A. Sloas, individually and as next friend of Harold Sloas, Elliott Sloas, and Susan Sloas; Captain Floyd H. Winn, individually and as next friend of Bethany Winn; Captain Charles D. Wardle, individually and as next friend of Casi Wardle and Erek Marc Downey; Master Sergeant George Bowers, individually and as next friend of Loretta Bowers, Mark Bowers, and Kevin Bowers; and Master Sergeant Paul Tipton, individually and as next friend of Paula Tipton, Gina Tipton, and Ginger Tipton, Appellees, v. ONSLOW COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, Appellant, and The State of North Carolina, and James B. Hunt, Jr., Governor of North Carolina, Defendants. UNITED STATES of America; Major Daniel M. Rowland, individually and as next friend of Mary Alice Rowland; Major Werner Hellmer, individually and as next friend of Werner K. Hellmer and Jessica R. Hellmer; Commander William Hicks, individually and as next friend of Tamara Hicks and Jason Hicks; Lieutenant Commander Harold A. Sloas, individually and as next friend of Harold Sloas, Elliott Sloas, and Susan Sloas; Captain Floyd H. Winn, individually and as next friend of Bethany Winn; Captain Charles D. Wardle, individually and as next friend of Casi Wardle and Erek Marc Downey; Master Sergeant George Bowers, individually and as next friend of Loretta Bowers, Mark Bowers, and Kevin Bowers; and Master Sergeant Paul Tipton, individually and as next friend of Paula Tipton, Gina Tipton, and Ginger Tipton, Appellees, v. The STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, Appellant, and Onslow County Board of Education and James B. Hunt, Jr., Governor of North Carolina, Defendants. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit) |
Elizabeth C. Bunting, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, N.C. (Rufus L. Edmisten, Atty. Gen., Raleigh, N.C., on brief), and Marshall F. Dotson, Jr., Jacksonville, N.C. (Warlick, Milsted, Dotson & Carter, Jacksonville, N.C., on brief), for appellants.
Marleigh D. Dover, Appellate Staff, Civil Division, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C. (J. Paul McGrath, Asst. Atty. Gen., Washington, D.C., Samuel T. Currin, U.S. Atty., Raleigh, N.C., Michael F. Hertz, Appellate Staff, Civil Division, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., on brief), for appellees.
Before RUSSELL, WIDENER and SPROUSE, Circuit Judges.
Onslow County, North Carolina is the location of the Marine Corps installations of Camp Lejeune and the related Marine Corps Air Station. On July 6, 1982, the Onslow County Board of Education adopted a resolution having the effect of an ordinance and requiring that all nondomiciliary students enrolled in the Onslow County public schools be charged tuition for the 1982-83 school year. The United States and several individual plaintiffs, military personnel with nondomiciliary children enrolled in the Onslow County public schools, brought this action challenging such tuition requirement. The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, on the ground that the ordinance discriminated against federally-connected persons and therefore against the federal government in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. From such judgment defendants appeal. We affirm.
As of August 1982, Camp Lejeune, one of the largest Marine Corps installations in the United States, was the base for 35,552 military personnel, with an additional complement of 4,715 civilian employees. Over 4500 military families reside off-base in Onslow County. During the 1981-82 school year, the Onslow County Board of Education operated 25 schools, with a total enrollment of 16,668 students, including 4,820 federally-connected or military dependent children. 1 Following adoption of the tuition requirement, the Board sent a total of 2,785 tuition bills, of which 2,555 were for nondomiciliary federally-connected children, and 230 for non-federally-connected children. It remains unclear from the record how these nondomiciliary students were identified, or what procedures the Board would follow to establish nondomiciliary status. These figures indicate, however, that 92% of the nondomiciliary students affected by the tuition requirement are federally-connected. The individual plaintiffs in this case, all of whom are or were stationed at Camp Lejeune residing in off-base housing, 2 are not North Carolina domiciliaries. They contributed to local and state government revenues by paying sales taxes, and in many instances real property taxes.
North Carolina law entitles all "children of the State" to a free elementary and secondary education. N.C.Gen.Stat. Sec. 115C-1 (Supp.1981). Public schools are funded from a combination of sources. For the 1980-81 school year, state appropriations supplied 63.9%, mainly for current operating expenses, N.C.Gen.Stat. Sec. 115C-426(d), while locally raised funds contributed 23.3% of the total, intended for general maintenance, capital outlay, and supplementary current expenses. Federal funding from all sources contributed the remaining 12.8%. No state-wide tax is levied to support education specifically in North Carolina; rather, all state tax receipts are pooled in the State General Fund, from which disbursements to support education and other state functions are made. Support of public schools in 1980-81 amounted to approximately 43% of total state outlays. Nearly 52% of the General Fund's receipts are derived from state income taxes and 24% comes from a general sales tax, while the remaining receipts include various specialized taxes and 7% represents non-tax revenues. Local support for the Onslow County public schools comes from the County General Fund, which like its state counterpart pools revenues from all sources, and in fiscal year 1982-83 derived 45.8% of its receipts from ad valorem taxes. The county's 1982-83 contribution to the Board of Education amounted to $3.6 million of a $15.8 million county budget. Onslow County's remaining substantial source of public school funding in recent years has been federal impact aid. 3 For school year 1981-82, the educational cost per pupil in Onslow County was $1,811.18, of which state contributions represented $1,249.54, local contributions $334.11, and federal aid $227.53.
Onslow County has in the past benefited from two distinct federal programs compensating in part the burden of educating federally-connected children. From 1951 through 1982, Onslow County's public schools received annual payments under the Impact Aid Program, P.L. 81-874, 20 U.S.C. Sec. 236 et seq. Impact aid funds are available to defray current maintenance and operating expenses, where federal activities have burdened local educational agencies because, inter alia, those agencies provide education for children whose parents are employed on federal property. 20 U.S.C. Sec. 236(3). Onslow County's public schools have qualified for impact aid in past years under 20 U.S.C. Sec. 238(b) owing to the substantial numbers of schoolchildren residing with parents who were employed at the Marine Corps facilities but lived off-base. From an initial payment of $7,027 in fiscal year 1951, impact aid to Onslow County schools gradually rose to a peak of over one million dollars annually during fiscal years 1975-78. Thereafter, impact aid payments began to decline, although the enrollment of federally-connected children in Onslow County's schools remained the same or increased. Between fiscal years 1981 and 1982 Onslow County's impact aid fell by over one-third, from $664,634 to $404,409, because of federal budget cutbacks. 4 Before 1982, the Board had never charged tuition to nondomiciliary schoolchildren, and indeed could not charge federally-connected children for a public education while continuing to receive impact aid under P.L. 874. See 20 U.S.C. Sec. 238(b).
Between 1952 and 1967, the Board also received $2,916,598 in irregular payments under the federal School Construction Assistance Program, P.L. 81-815, 20 U.S.C. Sec. 631 et seq. P.L. 815 aimed to assist localities which had experienced substantial increases in enrollments of federally-connected schoolchildren. See 20 U.S.C. Sec. 631. To receive this funding for construction of school facilities, the Board provided in its applications the assurance required by 20 U.S.C. Sec. 636(b)(1)(F) that:
"The Applicant's school facilities will be available to the children for whose education contributions are provided in Public Law 815, as amended, on the same terms, in accordance with the laws of the State in which Applicant is situated, as they are available to other children in Applicant's school district."
The Board last applied for funds under P.L. 815 in 1966. At least some of the public school facilities in Onslow County built with federal aid under P.L. 815 are apparently still in use, as defendants conceded in oral argument.
Faced with significant cutbacks in federal impact aid, and believing that P.L. 874 aid would terminate altogether in 1983, the Board adopted its July 6, 1982 resolution which is the subject of this action. 5
The Board's resolution, as its preamble indicates, was adopted pursuant to a North Carolina statute enacted in 1981 which permit local school boards to charge tuition for all nondomiciliary schoolchildren. 6 The Board has agreed not to invoke the dismissal sanction for nonpayment while this case is pending. The U.S. Department of Education has informed the Board that it no longer qualifies for impact aid under P.L. 874 because of the ordinance, and has withheld a preliminary 1983 payment.
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