TEXAS SCHOOL FINANCE SYSTEM RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL

  

A judge has declared Texas’ school finance system unconstitutional for a second time.

State District Judge John Dietz ruled that even though the Legislature pumped an extra $3 billion-plus into classrooms last summer, the state still fails to provide adequate funding or distribute it fairly among wealthy and poor areas.

Dietz’s written ruling reaffirms a verbal decision he issued in February of 2013 where he found then that the state’s so-called “Robin Hood” funding formula fails to meet the Texas Constitution’s requirements for a fair and efficient system that provides a “general diffusion of knowledge.”

Dietz’s final 21-page opinion took the extra step of blocking Texas from using portions of its current system to pay for schools — but also put that order on hold until next July. That gives the Legislature, which reconvenes in January, an opportunity to—in Dietz’s words, “cure the constitutional deficiencies.”

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office, which had argued that the system was flawed but nonetheless constitutional, says the state will appeal.

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