Posted on 09/15/2004 2:18:44 PM PDT by Redbob
AUSTIN – Texas' $30 billion system for financing public schools is unconstitutional, and the state must stop funding education within a year if the Legislature doesn't find a new, equitable method, a judge ruled Wednesday. ...
State District Judge John Dietz ruled moments after closing arguments in the case brought against the state by more than 300 school districts. The districts contended that the system violated the state Constitution by not providing equal educational opportunities.
Dietz said he would issue an injunction ordering state funds for public education to cease within a year if the Legislature does not find an adequate solution.
The decision, which follows nearly six weeks of testimony, is expected to be appealed.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
This post is series breaking news and I am glad it was posted. Thanks!
Time to ask for a refund from my local school district.
that judge should consider the fact that texans just might do that. i have never been one but i know enough of and about them to know that they don't like to be pushed around.
Maybe they'll do away with Property Taxes. They'll probably tax ... oh... I dunno.... tires, toilet paper, coffin stuffing, soap, shampoo, baby diapers, bottled water, grande cafe latte and all other Star Bucks products, people with green green grass, $1.00 per gallon extra if you fill up an SUV, -$.50 per gallon off if you fill up a toyota prius tree hugger credit, hair cut tax, mustache tax, goatee tax, beard tax, blonde-in-a-bottle tax, tampon tax, women's pad tax, Stupid Tax (if you feel that you don't pay enough taxes, you need to pay this tax), ugly woman tax, big boob tax credit, hamburger tax, cheeseburger tax, driveway road tax, pizza delivery tax, pizza pineapple tax, bad credit tax, good credit tax, birth tax, death tax, CEO tax, advertising tax, talk radio tax, bean&cheese burritto tax, dog and cat food tax, dog and cat fee/tax, titty bar tax, height/weight/body fat ratio tax, miles driven per day tax. . .
Oh, I know. When I saw a Dallas Morning Spews article excerpted here the first time, I was going to post the full text in a reply. Then I checked the excerpt list and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it on there. :^(
Very, very well said. I have been writing the Gov and others. All but the Gov have wrote me back with nice letters. The Gov doesn't hang around Texas very much. He just goes where ever he can find some money.
Good point. This judge just seems to be telling the Legislature that it better get off of its butt and do its job. All in all it is what I expected.
The "Lege", under both parties, has been pushing education costs (taxes) onto the back of local property owners for the past 10 years. It gave them the ability to say, "Vote for me. I did not raise your taxes, go talk to your local school board."
It should be an interesting session.
You are absolutely right! Let's just declare them mullahs who are the final word on everything and the Constitution be damned.
Seems like serious breaking news to me.
What ya think about that there mess down there in Wilber-Hutchins?
The solution, by the way, is to set a minimum adequate standard per student that all ISDs are expected to raise, and exactly that much is sent back to each and all are equally funded, and then declare that individual districts are free to raise more funds if the people in that district care to pay more taxes for supplemental education. If an ISD can't or won't cut it, then break it up and redistribute it. The fact of the matter is that ISDs exist in Texas more to distribute and manage football teams than they do to distribute and manage educational resources. If you threaten their traditional football structures, like the people in the story of "Stone Soup" all of a sudden traditional ISDs will come up with the minimum funding they need to continue to maintain their identity.
You are, of course, correct, but I would add "personal" to the "state income tax". Bullock got the corporate income tax through and called it a franchise tax.
Thanks, I honestly thought it was only recently that AISD historically had an outflow rather than in inflow until recently but I was relying on my own memory as I couldn't google a record of transfers.
Regarding it being a good thing very well said, it's way past time and both groups have been hiding behind Robin Hood for far too long.
Hmmmmmmmm if you go wayyy back....
Dem Mark White faced with a budget crunch had the choice of either raising the sales tax or cut funding at the state level and shove the funding back on the school districts. I believe the state used to fund 60-80% of all school financing?
Like a cowards they are he and the Dems cut state funding......down to some %40 of all funding?
Along comes Scrotum Face Annie and she thinks it's always good politics to tax the rich. Since people who work for a living and own property have more money, she comes up with the robinhood plan to equalize the money being allocated at both the state and among the school districts.
Amongest all this, Gov Bush tried to push it down to the ISD's not so much to force them into paying more but to push the decesion making down to the local level.
Not sure what this recent ruling means.... the state is going to have to fund districts equally?
If they took the socialist agenda out of the public schools and concentrated on just the reading writing and arithmetic they now teach...
Kids would only have to go to school through third grade..
imo
This is the ongoing process from this above lawsuit filed on May 23, 1984 regarding unequal funding among the many ISDs in Texas... It has been in and out of the court system, required several consectitive legislatives sessions in 89/90 and still the legislature couldn't come up with a plan... On June 1, 1990 the master appointed by the Court offered a plan to be implemented called 'robin hood' by the press if the legislatured didn't devise one.... On June 6, 1990 the Legislature adopted a plan and Gov. Clements signed it into law the following day...
Following that additonal attempts were made and finally in May 1993 the Legislature adopted a 'multi option' plan giving the districts five choices from which to select one.... In January 1995 the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the options plan was constitutional but that the legislature still needed to work on equalizing and improving school facilities throughout the state.
So I guess that is where Texas is today with the ruling....
The judge ruled correctly. The Texas Constitution prohibits any state property tax, which means only county and local taxing authorities may assess a property tax. The Robin Hood plan confiscated a portion of the local school district property taxes of "wealthy" districts and redistributed it to "poor" districts. Therefore, if you chose to move to a more expensive neighborhood due to the quality of the local schools, the district had to raise your property taxes to the maximum allowable, only to have the state confiscate more and more of that revenue to redistribute to "poor" districts, so you are paying property tax to fund other districts where you are not represented. This clearly illegal plan was ruled unconstitutional the first time Governor Ann Wrinkles tried to impose it on us back in the late 80's, so she repackaged it and got it passed with a slightly different name but essentially the same plan.
The judge in this case didn't make up a new rule, just simply applied the state constitution and did what should have been done about 14 years ago.
It started years ago in Texas--"Robin Hood"--"rich" districts became donors to poorer districts!
In January 1995 the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the options plan was constitutional but that the legislature still needed to work on equalizing and improving school facilities throughout the state.
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