This is a follow-up post to my earlier post about the Texas Supreme Court's surprise mid-week decision in the West Orange-Cove (school finance) lawsuit this morning. Justice Hecht delivered the opinion of the Court, joined by Chief Justice Jefferson, Justice O'Neill, Justice Wainwright, Justice Medina, Justice Green, and Justice Johnson. Justice Brister authored the dissenting opinion in which he asserted that the school finance system is not unconstitutional.
For Spring Branch ISD, the news is mixed. The Court ruled in favor of the West Orange-Cove districts (which includes Spring Branch) and found that the cap on school property taxes constitutes an unconstitutional state property tax. The Court has given the Texas Legislature until June 1, 2006, to reform the finance system. The Legislature will therefore either have to eliminate the cap or determine a method of finance that gives local school districts discretion in setting local property taxes.
It is important to note that the Court did not find that the Robin Hood system of redistributing funds from property "rich" districts like Spring Branch to property "poor" districts is unconstitutional. It is unclear how the Legislature will deal with this issue, although during the past session, there was proposed legislation that would have completely eliminated Robin Hood recapture. There was also proposed legislation that would have limited recapture to 35% of a district's revenue. Currently, Spring Branch's payment is approximately 11% of revenue.
The Court ruled against the West Orange-Cove Plaintiffs however on all of the remaining issues in the case and found that the current system is both adequate and equitable. On the plus side, the Court appeared to provide guidance to the Legislature and create a test for future potential litigation in the event the Legislature's actions are insufficient.
Specifically, the Court found that while the system was not yet inadequate,
"there is substantial evidence . . . that the public education system has reached the point where continued improvement will not be possible absent significant change, whether that change take the form of increased funding, improved efficiencies, or better methods of education . . . . But an impending constitutional violation is not an existing one, and it remains to be seen whether the system's predicted drift toward constitutional inadequacy will be avoided by legislative reaction to widespread calls for changes."
All in all an opinion that will require legislative action, and hopefully legislative action that will create a system that is fair to all taxpayers and provides for long term, stable, adequate financing to enable ever increasing expectations for all of the 4.4 million children in Texas.
For additional information and opinions on today's ruling, I recommend the following:
Statement by Bracewell & Guiliani and Haynes & Boone, Attorneys for the West Orange Cove Plaintiffs
Statement from Attorney General Greg Abbott About Supreme Court's Ruling
Statement by Governor Perry Regarding the Texas Supreme Court Ruling on School Finance
Equity Center Advisory: Supreme Court Issues WO-C Ruling
Statement by Retired Judge F. Scott McCown on Texas Supreme Court's School Finance Ruling
Press coverage: Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, Austin American Statesman, San Antonio Express News, New York Times, etc. (Google News search results).
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