Public Education Fight Heads To High Court
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NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The fight for funding public education in Texas is headed to the Texas Supreme Court tomorrow. Lawyers representing more than half of the public schools in the state are expected to argue that public school funding cuts of 2011 have drastically affected education for Texas children. This fight is not new. But, what is new is for the first time 600 school districts out of 1,247 are suing the state in high court.
For parents like Rehana Kundawala who moved to Southlake last year for its school district, the funding loss hits home. She says she moved to the district for its school, "I think that is the biggest investment we could make today, invest that into our children, " Kundawala says. She's not happy that her property tax investment, isn't all going to her son's school district.
Carroll ISD where Kundawala's kids' go to school gave out 12,452,837 to Austin last year as part of the Robin Hood system and yet it faces a budget shortfall. "I think most of the families I know of have moved into the area for the schools. So that is upsetting." she told CBS 11 News. The amount allotted to each school is based on a formula set by the legislature which the schools argue is outdated. The group believes that schools not only gets less money from the state, but they also have to send more out in Robin Hood funds. Last year alone, Highland Park ISD sent $69,148,245, followed by Plano at $34,596,944. Grapevine - Colleyville sent in $24,286,072.
Several North Texas schools are part of this lawsuit including Dallas ISD, Fort Worth ISD, Frisco ISD, Allen ISD, Denton ISD and Richardson ISD .
Christy Rome is with Texas School Coalition - an advocacy group that's part of the lawsuit brought by the schools. She says the north Texas looks a lot different from the 90s when the formula for school funding was set. "When you think about how different north Texas looks today than it did in 1991 and how different those adjustments should ... then you can see how that whole system being out of date has such an impact," she says.
Also, one- third of Texas schools don't have enough money this year to cover their budgets or meet the high standards set by legislature. "They (schools) don't have the funding they need to provide after school tutoring, and summer school, and some of the other instructional programs that they need to get students up to those standards," Rome told CBS 11 News.
The Texas Attorney General's office which is defending the state at the high court, declined to comment. But Americans for Prosperity, a conservative watchdog group against high government spending, filed court papers saying that schools aren't wisely spending what they already have. Governor Greg Abbott also weighed in, filing papers for the state - arguing the Supreme court should not decide this case, the legislature should. If the court rules in favor of schools though, in the end, the legislature would be forced to take some kind of action.
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