The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that the school finance system is constitutional. The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that the school finance system is constitutional.[/caption]

Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett delivered a court opinion May 13 that holds the Texas 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,” Willet said in his opinion.

Recapture, also known as “Robin Hood,” is a system through which property-rich districts, such as Grapevine-Colleyville ISD and Carroll ISD, 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 have battled the Texas State Board of Education and the Texas Education Agency over the legality of recapture.

For the 2015-16 school year, CISD is expected to send back more than $15 million to the state in recapture payment and GCISD is projected to send back more than $27 million.

"We are extremely disappointed in the court's ruling," CISD Superintendent David Faltys said. "I fully believed that we would win our case, and we would prevail for the good of all public school students in Texas. It's a tough loss to swallow given the fact that we are educating students today with less state funding per student than we received a decade ago."

CISD board of trustees President Christopher Archer said he is equally disappointed with the decision.

School trustees in CISD adopted a deficit budget this year and have been working to manage through the financial deficit. The district's target revenue per student (average daily attendance) is about $35 less today than it was in 2006 with more and more accountability and public demands for student services.

Officials from GCISD said they would like to wait on providing a statement.

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.

View the Texas Supreme Court ruling here.