NATION : Texas School Financing Upset
The Texas Supreme Court, saying “efficient” doesn’t mean “cheap,” ruled today that the state’s method of financing schools is unconstitutional and gave lawmakers until May to develop a new one.
The nine-member court, however, said it would not instruct the Legislature what specific steps to take to correct the problem.
A state district judge had held the school finance system unconstitutional in a case brought by poor school districts against the state education commissioner and others. That ruling was overturned last December by the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, but the high court upheld the plaintiffs today on the ground that the Constitution requires “efficiency” in government.
“We hold that the state’s school financing system is neither financially efficient, nor efficient in the sense of providing for a ‘general diffusion of knowledge’ statewide,” Justice Oscar Mauzy’s opinion said.
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