Texas Supreme Court upholds state’s school funding formula; local officials react

Texas’ complicated school finance system is constitutional, the state Supreme Court unanimously ruled Friday – a surprise defeat for the 600-plus school districts that endured more than four years of costly legal battles hoping judges would force the Republican-controlled Legislature to fork over more funding.

“It’s just an unfortunate decision because it will keep perpetuating an unequal education,” said state Sen. Jose Rodriguez.

The all-Republican court reversed a lower judge’s decision that had sided with schools and called state lawmakers’ $5.4 billion in classroom cuts in 2011 inadequate and unfairly distributed among the wealthy and poor districts.

“There are different pockets of money that school districts can tap into and it comes at the expense quite frankly of school districts like ours that have these needs for English language learners,” Rodriguez said.

The 9-0 decision ends a case that was the largest of its kind in Texas history. Major legal battles over classroom funding have raged six times since 1984, but the latest ruling marks just the second time that justices have failed to find the system unconstitutional. It also means the Texas Legislature won’t have to devise a new funding system.

The court also said “there doubtless exist innovative reform measures to make Texas schools more accountable and efficient, both quantitatively and qualitatively” but it added that “our judicial responsibility is not to second-guess or micromanage Texas education policy.”

“It’s byzantine,” said former state Sen. Dee Margo. “It’s a ‘rob from Peter to pay Paul’ kind of thing. El Paso needs to have its schools funded appropriately. And if at this point in time it requires something analogous to a robin hood method to make it equitable and fair, I’m all for that until the legislature can come up with something better.”

The school funding mechanism is a “Robin Hood” formula where wealthy school districts share local property tax revenue with districts in poorer areas. Districts rely heavily on property taxes because Texas has no state income tax.

School districts in all parts of Texas were on the same side in the case. While those in economically challenged areas said funding was inadequate, districts in well-to-do locales argued that voters often refuse to approve local tax increases because much of the money would go elsewhere.

When lawmakers reconvene in January, there will be no court-mandated funding limits.