New Texas Plan to Balance Funds for Schools Draws Objections

A plan aimed at equalizing spending between rich and poor school districts will go into effect while the poorer school systems challenge its constitutionality, a judge ruled Tuesday.

That will allow state funds to be distributed to school districts this summer so schools can open on time this fall.

State District Judge F. Scott McCown said he would presume the measure is constitutional until challenges are filed. He set a July 15 deadline for objections.

A lawyer for some poor school districts said Tuesday that they would challenge the plan. Lawyers for property-rich districts said they had not yet decided.

Lawmakers are under a Texas Supreme Court order to find a way to even out funding available to Texas’ 1,048 school districts. Schools rely on state money and local property tax funds.

Three plans have been rejected since 1989 by the state Supreme Court, which set Tuesday as the deadline for lawmakers to find an acceptable alternative.

A measure approved by the Legislature on Friday was signed into law Monday by Gov. Ann Richards. It forces wealthy districts to choose from several options.

Rick Gray, who represents about 60 poor school districts, told McCown during a hearing Tuesday that the plan is “the best foot forward on the road to equity that the Legislature has ever passed.”

But Gray and others said it does not provide for a fair distribution of state aid, does not provide money to build classrooms and would allow a $600 gap per student in funding between districts.

Under the measure, the 109 districts that exceed the maximum wealth level can choose from several options: merging tax bases with one or more poorer districts, sending money to the state, contracting to educate students in other districts, consolidating voluntarily with one or more districts, or moving some property to another district’s tax rolls.

If school districts don’t choose an option under the plan, the state education commissioner will order commercial taxable property to be mapped into another district. If that’s not enough, there will be forced consolidation.

The plan was designed after voters rejected a May 1 proposal to authorize the state to shift money from richer to poorer districts.