Nearly two years after the legislative session that cut $5.4 billion from the state's education system, more than 600 Texas school districts are in the midst of a school finance lawsuit trial that began in late October.
Travis County Judge John Dietz, who also heard the West Orange-Cove Consolidated ISD v. Neeley school finance case in the mid 2000s, is overseeing the new trial, which is composed of five different groups representing 611 school districts.
Cy-Fair ISD joined the Fort Bend ISD v. Robert Scott lawsuit last December. Led by David Thompson, the group wants the state's school finance system to become one that is equitable and adequate.
During the opening remarks Oct. 22, Thompson discussed what has and has not changed since the West Orange-Cove trial several years ago. In his testimony, he said the percentage of students who are economically disadvantaged is growing at a rate faster than total student enrollment growth, while academic standards are at the highest levels to date, according to Moak, Casey and Associates.
"The testimony we've heard is that the [economically disadvantaged] kids aren't prepared to be in school yet," said Tedrah Robertson, communications director for the Texas Equity Center, an organization formed to address inequities in the school finance system. "There are many students who don't read when they start kindergarten, and that could be because they don't speak English in their own home. It costs more to educate these kids."
Although inequities in the state's school finance system are nothing new, some of the issues being discussed during the trial began in 2006, when legislation mandated a statewide reduction in property taxes by one-third, resulting in a loss of revenue for school districts.
To make up for the lost funding, the legislature guaranteed that each district would receive target revenue based on money it would have received from weighted average daily student counts and the district's maintenance and operations tax rate from the 2005-06 school year.
Since then, CFISD has cut more than $100 million out of its budget to comply with the mandated cuts, even though student enrollment increased by 6 percent during that time.
This issue of less funding combined with increased academic standards has also been discussed during the trial. During the first week, Guy Sconzo, superintendent of Humble ISD, also spoke on behalf of the Fort Bend ISD group. He was asked what has changed from before the West Orange-Cove case, and he pointed out several differences. The district is now operating under a "different funding system in which target revenue has not provided the adequate funding to the district," and a new accountability system has required the district to remediate more students and the district lost money during the last legislative session, according to Moak, Casey and Associates.
Ultimately, the case is expected to last until January and then be appealed to the state Supreme Court.
"We'll take two weeks off in December and come back Jan. 2, and that's when the interveners and the state present their case," Robertson said. "We expect Judge Dietz to rule verbally after that, then we expect there will be an appeal, and then it's just a matter of waiting to see when the [state] supreme court takes it up."
Although the legislature convenes in January, it is not expected to make sweeping changes to school finance until a final decision has been made in the trial based on the appeal.
