DALLAS – The Texas Supreme Court declared the state's school finance system "Byzantine" but constitutional in a ruling that ends four years of litigation over unequal funding among the state's 1,266 school districts.
"Texas's more than five million schoolchildren deserve better than serial litigation over an increasingly Daedalean 'system,'" Justice Don Willett wrote in the
However, the unanimous opinion asserted that the court's job is "not to second-guess or micromanage Texas' education policy or to issue edicts from on high."
The ruling overturns State District Court Judge John Dietz's 2014 ruling that the school funding formula was unconstitutional.
Then-Attorney General General Greg Abbott appealed Dietz's ruling directly to the all-Republican state Supreme Court.
The ruling is "a victory for Texas taxpayers and the Texas Constitution," Abbott, now governor, said in a statement.
"The Supreme Court's decision ends years of wasteful litigation by correctly recognizing that courts do not have the authority to micromanage the State's school finance system," he said.
The Texas Classroom Teachers Association called the ruling disappointing.
"For the millions of Texas schoolchildren, parents and teachers who deserve better, we hope legislators will heed the court's suggestion to 'seize this urgent challenge,' the TCTA said in a statement. "When the Legislature convenes in January, lawmakers must make significantly improving education funding a priority, so that schools have the resources to match the increasing expectations and challenges of educating this state's diverse population."
The original suit filed in 2013 by 600 school districts came after the Legislature cut $5.4 billion in education funding in 2011, the first reductions in state history. The 2013 Legislature restored $3.4 billion of the funding and changed testing and graduation requirements. After the funding was restored, Dietz issued his second opinion that the funding formula was still unconstitutional.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Eva Guzman called the funding formula "good enough," adding that "does not mean the system is good or that it will continue to be enough."
"Shortfalls in both resources and performance persist in innumerable respects, and a perilously large number of students is in danger of falling further behind."
In a 2014 report, Fitch Ratings said that a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the districts would be a positive credit factor for local school finance.
"For some time Fitch cited the lack of local tax-rate flexibility as a programmatic credit concern," analysts wrote. "These pressures have been exacerbated due to rapid enrollment growth in fast-growth districts, as the state's economy continues its strong postrecession recovery."
