Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett delivered a court opinion May 13 that stated the Texas public school finance system as constitutional, validating the oft-criticized “recapture” concept.

“Despite the imperfections of the current school funding regime, it meets minimum constitutional requirements,” Willett said in the opinion.

Recapture, also known as “Robin Hood,” is a system in which property-rich districts, such as Eanes and Lake Travis ISDs, are required by law to send some of their property tax revenue to the state to be redistributed among districts deemed property-poor.

For years, school districts including EISD and LTISD have battled the Texas State Board of Education and the Texas Education Agency over the legality of recapture.

The TEA deferred to the Office of the Governor for comments about the ruling.

In a statement, Gov. Greg Abbott said the ruling is a “victory for Texas taxpayers and the Texas Constitution.”

“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,” Abbott said.

EISD Superintendent Tom Leonard said in a statement he was disappointed in the ruling.

“The facts remain clear: Since 1990, Eanes ISD has contributed more than $860 million in recapture payments to the state, including an estimated $71 million for this school year,” he said. “If the current rate of recapture for districts such as Eanes ISD were to rise, we are not sure how that will affect our community and, more importantly, our schools.”

LTISD Superintendent Brad Lancaster echoed Leonard’s sentiments in a statement and said he was surprised by the ruling.

“Today’s ruling does not help our situation at Lake Travis ISD; in fact, our financial situation goes from bad to worse,” he said. “It complicates a condition that we have seen coming for some time now.”

He said LTISD, whose student population has grown by more than 60 percent in the past 10 years, contributed nearly $33 million from local taxes to the state as part of recapture for this school year, and next school year the expected contribution is approximately $40 million.

The EISD and LTISD boards of trustees are in the process of finalizing their 2016-17 budgets.