School districts take state to court over budget cuts

Jason Gossett, assistant superintendent for business and support services at SMCISD, said there are two main reasons the district decided not to join, including that the filings were already under way.

"Plus, we're not a property-rich district, but our wealth per student is higher than most. So our kids do generate probably a little more funding than the average," Gossett said. "Based on how the lawsuit works out, we could actually lose money because we're just barely above the average. All of us who are above the average, [if we] go down to the average, we stand to lose."

For the other districts, superintendents say filing lawsuits is their only means to see legislation that would boost public education funding at a time when school districts have faced budget cuts.

Hays CISD Superintendent Jeremy Lyon said the combination of budget cuts and an increase in testing requirements is creating an alarming situation for districts.

"We are seeing our school funding being eroded at a time when the state mandates and high-stakes testing is doing nothing but increasing exponentially," Lyon said. "We're being asked to do more with less, and that just is not going to last over time."

Filing suit

In October, law firm Gray & Becker P.C. filed the first lawsuit against former Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott, Comptroller Susan Combs and the Texas State Board of Education. The firm represents 415 school districts in what is known as the Texas Taxpayer and Student Fairness Coalition.

The districts involved in the suit are seeking adequate or equitable funding that would provide each one with the same amount of funding per student, said Ray Freeman, deputy executive director of the Equity Center, which is assisting the Texas Taxpayer and Student Fairness Coalition in its lawsuit against the state.

"Obviously, appropriate funding would be funding that provided an efficient system for schools, which from earlier finance cases has been defined as substantially equal access to substantially equal dollars for substantially equal effort," he said.

Each district receives state aid in the form of revenue per weighted average daily attendance, or WADA. WADA is designed to compensate districts for educating students who cost more to the district, such as those in special education or gifted classes.

Freeman said the problem is that not every district's revenue per WADA is the same. Some districts receive a couple of thousand dollars less per student than other districts based on the state's formula.

HCISD has joined a second lawsuit, filed by law firm Thompson & Horton LLP, which focuses more on the inadequacy of how much funding districts receive versus the inequity of it. More than 60 school districts, including Austin ISD, are represented in the lawsuit.

"We were more about the arbitrary nature of how the finance system is set up and that it's simply not adequate enough," said Austin ISD Superintendent Meria Carstarphen.

The third lawsuit, filed by law firm Haynes and Boone LLP and with support from the Texas School Coalition, focuses on the contention that the state is violating the Texas Constitution for having a de facto statewide property tax, which local districts set but the state caps at $1.17 per $100 assessed property value, said Mark Trachtenberg, a partner with Haynes and Boone.

"Then it is not a local tax rate because the state regulates it," he said.

The second claim in the suit states that districts do not have adequate funding to provide an education as required by the Texas Constitution, he said.

Six school districts are named as plaintiffs, but 85 total districts support it financially.

Two other lawsuits also address equity issues. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc. coalition represents districts near the U.S.-Mexico border and in San Antonio, and the Texans for Real Efficiency and Equity in Education group represents parents, students and taxpayers.

Lawsuit timeline

In April, the lawsuits were consolidated to be heard by Travis County Judge John Dietz. The trial is scheduled to start Oct. 22, and Freeman said the speculation is that Dietz would like to hand down a decision in early December. The law firms are gathering expert witnesses and putting together testimony.

Lyon said everyone has a different theory on when the lawsuits might be decided. He said HCISD is working with the idea that the suits might be settled by the end of the next legislative session, triggering a special session that would focus entirely on public education. Public education and the way it is funded are more complex systems than many people realize, he said.

"What is the most frustrating is when people who are sharp critics of public education attack the system from the standpoint of a business mindset without any real knowledge of what we actually do," Lyon said. "If you want to know about public schools in Texas and what an amazing job we are doing, spend one day in a school—one day—and you will understand us a hundred times better than you do currently."