Catching up with the Texas school finance trial

In most classes today - when we were trying to figure out why the state of Texas includes 6 credit hours government in the core curriculum - we continued to look at primary documents, including the opening section of Article 7 of the Texas Constitution. It reads:

A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.

I mentioned that the part in bold and that a current lawsuit involves this phrase. Following the $5.4billion in budget cuts made in the 82nd session of the Texas Legislature, 2/3rds of the public school districts in the state sued.

The Texas Tribune catches us up with the case. A trial is underway and is not expected to result in a decision until March, and then the appellate process will begin, and who knows when that ends. The legislature is not sure exactly how to deal with this, although restoring the cuts may well do the trick.

Leadership has already stated that this will not happen if they have their say, but the courts may end up ordering that they do so. The article details the problems this poses for the legislature:

If the courts finds the funding mechanism of public education unconstitutional, the Legislature must revisit school finance in the budget. And if the state does not comply with the court-ordered instructions, the Texas Education Agency would be blocked from giving money, [State Rep. Jimmie Don] Aycock said. “The lever is the ability to shut off funding to the schools so [legislators] don’t have to do exactly what the court says, but be within the boundaries set by the court,” Aycock said.

Thompson said schools have repeatedly sued the state over the years because Texas refuses to perform studies on its education system and to update its financing for its changing population. “They quit doing them because they didn’t like the answers,” he added. “They were consistently finding that it’s going to take more resources."

Some legislators have tried to permanently change the state’s responsibility to education by amending the Texas Constitution, but they have not gained traction. In the early 1990s, state Rep. John Culberson, now a Republican congressman from Houston, drafted an amendment to exclude courts from school finance matters by allowing lawmakers to determine adequate levels of financing. State Rep. Gary Elkins, R-Houston, offered an amendment last session, but it failed in committee.

We will follow this as it develops.