School Finance Trial Underway In Texas

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AUSTIN (KRLD-AM) -  Solicitor General Scott Keller argued the case for the State. It was his contention that the Court should drop this case. He described the school districts' lawsuit as flawed. "The plaintiffs came to court today to say they know the court doesn't have the power to order the legislature to spend more money, so shut down the Texas public education system unless more money is spent." Assistant Solicitor General Rance Craft claimed the school districts arguments were based on the false premise that money doesn't necessarily guarantee better educated students. "(All their arguments) trace back to this idea that we can figure out this dollar figure that is necessary to achieve a general diffusion of knowledge, and work everything off of that."

The court seemed to stumble on the exact definition of "general diffusion of knowledge." When pressed by Justice Jeffrey Boyd, Assistant Solicitor General Beth Klusmann cited the definition derived by the court in the West Orange-Cove II trial, "An accredited education, we will assume is a general diffusion of knowledge."

There was powerful testimony from MALDEF Attorney Marisa Bono representing low-income and English language learner (ELL) students. "The State systematically fails to provide an adequate education and it provides more advantages to the students who already live in the most advantaged school districts. The State's failure jeopardizes the economy and our way of life." Low-income and ELL students make up over two-thirds of the entire student population.

Former Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson argued the case for the Fort Bend I-S-D group of school districts. He called on the Supreme Court to find in their favor as to motivate the legislature. Jefferson told the court that you won't find it in writing, but the State Legislature is crying out for the court to have them act so that we can get the system fixed properly.

While a public school shut down is possible, it's not probable according to Rick Grey, he represented the largest group of school districts in the case. He said historically the Supreme Court has extended the lower court injunction to give the legislature a shot at fixing the system. "This system is a product of the legislature. They can throw it out and start over, or they can tinker with it. They can do anything they want to do with it as long as whatever they do meets constitutional standards."

A decision isn't expected for months.

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