Source: https://lrl.texas.gov/collections/schoolFinance/lrlhome.cfm
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 11:53:21+00:00

Document:
In 2011 and early 2012, a group of school districts, businesses, parents, and concerned individuals filed suit in Travis County District Court against the State of Texas over the constitutionality of the state school finance system. After a ruling by the district court in 2014, the case was appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, which on May 13, 2016, ruled that the school finance system in Texas is within constitutional limits.
The 2011 case was preceded by several major school finance lawsuits in Texas. This page details the history of school finance litigation in Texas and provides access to key court documents. In addition, it includes a range of helpful resources on the subject of school finance.
Timeline adapted with permission from An Introduction to School Finance in Texas, Texas Taxpayers and Research Association (TTARA), pg. 27, by Sheryl Pace.
U.S. Supreme Court reversed decision of the lower court, finding the state system bore rational relationship to furthering state goals of providing minimum education while encouraging local control. [Read more] U.S. Supreme Court 411 U.S. 1, 93 S. Ct. 1278 (1973) (1975-1977) Increased teacher salary schedule and increased the number of instructional days to 175.
School finance system found unconstitutional.
In response to a motion for rehearing, the Supreme Court issued an "advisory opinion."
School finance system found constitutional.
Texas Supreme Court 917 S.W.2d 717 (Tex. 1995) School finance system found constitutional, therefore, no legislation followed.
Note: May 2006. Court case was dissolved by agreement in response to passage of HB 1.
Michael Williams, Commissioner of Education, et al. v. the Texas Taxpayer & Student Fairness Coalition, et al.; Calhoun County ISD, et al.; Edgewood ISD, et al.; Fort Bend ISD, et al.; Texas Charter School association, et al.; and Joyce Coleman, et al.
Court decision: School finance system found constitutional. Read a summary of the opinion.
04/13/15 Brief of appellants Michael Williams, et al.
07/02/15 Brief of cross-appellees Michael Williams, et al.
08/11/15 Reply brief of appellants Michael Williams, et al.
04/13/15 Brief of Texas Charter Schools Association, et al.
07/02/15 Brief of appellees/cross-appellees, The Texas Taxpayer and Student Fairness Coalition, et al.
07/02/15 Brief of appellees Edgewood ISD et al.
08/11/15 Reply brief of Texas Charter Schools Association, et al.
08/25/15 Letter brief on behalf of appellees Calhoun County ISD et al., Fort Bend ISD, et al., Texas Taxpayer & Student Fairness Coalition, et al., and Edgewood ISD, et al.
09/16/15 Letter brief submitted on behalf of appellees Fort Bend ISD, et al., Calhoun County ISD, et al., Edgewood ISD, et al., and the Texas Taxpayer and Student Fairness Coalition, et al.
08/21/15 Amicus curiae brief for Professor David R. Upham in support of: appellants Texans for Real Equity and Efficiency in Education and the other "efficiency intervenors"
08/26/15 Amicus brief of Dr. Ronald Johnson, educator, in support of Texans for Real Equity and Efficiency in Education et al., "efficiency intervenors"
08/26/15 Brief for the Governor of Texas as amicus curiae supporting appellants/cross-appellees Michael Williams, et al.
Texas Taxpayer & Student Fairness Coalition et al., Calhoun County ISD et al., Edgewood ISD et al., and Fort Bend ISD et al. (plaintiffs) and Joyce Coleman et al. (intervenors) v. Michael Williams, Commissioner of Education, et al.
05/29/12 Letter pursuant to Rule 11 TRCP, procedures for depositions, etc.
05/21/12 Letter pursuant to Rule 11 TRCP, procedures for depositions, etc.
04/30/12 Letter pursuant to Rule 11 TRCP, procedures for depositions, etc.
04/20/12 Letter pursuant to Rule 11 TRCP, procedures for depositions, etc.
Shirley Neeley, et al. v. West Orange-Cove Consolidated Independent School District, et al.
Court decision: School finance system found unconstitutional. Read a summary of the opinion.
06/30/05	Amicus curiae brief by The Earl Carl Institute for Legal and Social Policy, Inc.
05/12/05 Brief of appellees Edgewood ISD et al.
West Orange-Cove Consolidated Independent School District, et al. v. Felipe Alanis, et al.
04/09/01 Four wealthy school districts filed suit, dismissed by district and appeals courts; then in 2003, Texas Supreme Court remanded case back to the district court for trial.
Edgewood Independent School District, et al. v. Lionel R. Meno, et al.
Collection location: Texas Supreme Court case files and indexes, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District, et al. v. Edgewood Independent School District, et al.
Edgewood Independent School District, et al. v. William Kirby, et al.
Court decision (Edgewood II): School finance system found unconstitutional. Read a summary of the opinion.
Court decision (Edgewood IIa, Advisory opinion): In response to a motion for rehearing, the Supreme Court issues an "advisory opinion." Read a summary of the advisory opinion.
William Kirby, et al. vs. Edgewood Independent School District, et al.
01/08/88 Brief of appellants Eanes ISD, et al.
Note: The Travis County District Clerk has included this case in its Historical Records Project.
The trial transcripts linked below are part of the collection at the Tarlton Law Library.
San Antonio ISD, et al. v. Demetrio P. Rodriguez, et al.
The Supreme Court case file is located at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, D.C.
Demetrio P. Rodriguez, et al. v. San Antonio ISD, et al.
Docket sheet for this case obtained from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Ft. Worth, TX.
Note to reader: A selection of briefs, affidavits, and depositions for this case can be found in the Charles Alan Wright Papers at the Tarlton Law Library in Austin, TX.
Austin, Tex. : Texas Association of School Administrators : Texas Association of School Boards, 2015.
Belmont, Calif. : Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2013.
Washington, DC : Pew Charitable Trusts, c2012.
No financial accountability : why Texas K-12 public education lacks any real financial accountability and the implications for both the ongoing public school financing litigation and the future of our state / Hurley, Mark P.
Texas? : Texas Education Accountability Project, c2012.
Funding public education fairly : the final report of the TCCRI School Finance & Property Tax Task Force / Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute. School Finance and Property Tax Task Force.
Austin, TX : Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute, c2011.
Washington, D.C. : Urban Institute Press, c2010.
Is school funding fair? : a national report card / Baker, Bruce D.
State policies that pay : a survey of school finance policies and outcomes / Hightower, Amy M.
Bethesda, MD : Editorial Projects in Education, c2010.
Austin, Tex.? : Equity Center, 2009.
San Antonio, Tex. : St. Mary's Law School, 2009.
Within-district resource allocation and the marginal costs of providing equal educational opportunity : evidence from Texas and Ohio / Baker, Bruce D.
The adequacy of educational cost functions : lessons from Texas / Gronberg, Timothy J.
CPRE's school finance research : fifteen years of findings / Odden, Allan.
Madison, Wis. : Consortium for Policy Research in Education, Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin, 2008?
Handbook of research on education finance and policy / Ladd, Helen F.
Washington, D.C. : U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement, 2008.
Racial disparities in education finance : going beyond equal revenues / Rueben, Kim S.
Washington, DC : Urban Institute, c2008.
The School Finance Redesign Project : a synthesis of work to date / Center on Reinventing Public Education.
What is the sum of the parts? : how federal, state, and district funding streams confound efforts to address different student types / Roza, Marguerite.
A closer look at the charter school funding inequity : would the small district adjustment close the funding gap? / Charter School Policy Institute.
The property tax, school funding dilemma / Kenyon, Daphne A.
Cambridge, MA : Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, c2007.
The story of San Antonio Independent School Dist. v. Rodriguez : school finance, local control, and constitutional limits / Heise, Michael R.
Ithaca, NY : Cornell Law School, c2007.
2006 school finance report / Seiler, Marcia Ford.
Bridging the gap : green tax options for funding Texas schools / Texas Center for Policy Studies.
Austin, Tex. : Texas Center for Policy Studies, 2006.
Current expenditures for public elementary and secondary education, school year 2003-04 / Johnson, Frank H.
Fund the child : tackling inequity & antiquity in school finance / Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Public school funding reform / New Jersey. Legislature.
Frankfort, Ky. : Legislative Research Commission, 2006.
San Antonio v. Rodriguez and the pursuit of equal education : the debate over discrimination and school funding / Sracic, Paul A.
Lawrence, Kan. : University Press of Kansas, c2006.
Building a better school funding system : report / Ohio. Governor's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Financing Student Success.
Waco, Tex. : Perryman Group, c2005.
Washington, DC : Public Education Network, c2005.
Providing rural students with a high quality education : the rural perspective on the concept of educational adequacy / Malhoit, Gregory C.
Raleigh, NC : Rural School and Community Trust, c2005.
Washington, D.C. : National Education Association, 2005.
Atlanta, Ga. : Southern Office, Council of State Governments, c2004.
An economic evaluation of alternative sources of tax revenue for the state of Texas / Zodrow, George R.
Houston, Tex.? : Rice University?, 2004?
Effective, efficient, fair : paying for public education in Texas / Vedder, Richard K.
San Diego, CA : Dept. of Economics, San Diego State University ; Madison, WI : Robert M. LaFollette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2004.
Austin, Tex. : Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute : Texas Public Policy Foundation, 2004?
Denver, Colo. : National Conference of State Legislatures, c2004.
The high cost of Texas public education : a study of three Texas school districts / Holloway, Milton L.
Measuring educational adequacy in public schools / Baker, Bruce D.
Lawrence, Kan.? : University of Kansas? ; College Station, Tex.? : Texas A&M University?, 2004?
Of course money matters : why the arguments to the contrary never add up / Rebell, Michael A.
Paying for education : what is the true cost? / Patterson, Chris.
Austin, Tex. : Mexican American Legislative Caucus?, 2004?
Report of the Task Force on Public School Finance / Mexican American Legislative Caucus (Texas). Task Force on Public School Finance.
Report to the Texas Joint Select Committee on Public School Finance / Koret Task Force on K-12 Education.
Cambridge, MA : Dept. of Economics, Harvard University, 2004.
School funding, taxes, and economic growth : an analysis of the 50 states / Sims, Richard G.
School outcomes and school costs : the cost function approach / Gronberg, Timothy J.
College Station, Tex.? : Texas A&M University?, 2004?
Volatility of school output measures and implications for use in school funding formulas and in rankings of school and teacher performance / Gronberg, Timothy J.
College Station, TX : Dept. of Economics, Texas A&M University, 2004?
Austin, Tex. : Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, c2002.
New York : New Press : Distributed by W.W. Norton, 2003.
Washington, D.C. : National Education Association, c2003.
State special education finance systems, 1999-2000 / Thomas Parrish et al.
Austin, Texas : Texas Legislature, 2003.
San Francisco, Calif. : WestEd, c2003.
What will it take? : defining a quality education in Washington and a new vision of adequacy for school funding / Conley, David T.
Public school finance / Morgan, Kathleen O'Leary and Scott Morgan, eds.
A study of uncontrollable variations in the costs of Texas public education : a summary report / Alexander, Celeste D.
Taxing Texans : a six-part series examining taxes in the Lone Star State / Vedder, Richard K.
Austin, Tex. : Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, 2001.
Courts as catalysts : state supreme courts and public school finance equity / Bosworth, Matthew H.
The Permanent School Fund of Texas : progress report : legislative proposals, fund management & investments / Powers, Deborah D.
Reallocating Resources: How to Boost Student Achievement without Asking for More / Odden, Allan, R.
Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Corwin Press, c2001.
Washington, D.C. : National Education Association, c2000.
Dubuque, IA. : McGraw-Hill, c2000.
Equity and Adequacy in Education Finance: Issues and Perspectives / Ladd, Helen F., et al.
College Station, Tex. : Texas A & M University, 1999?
Funding Public Schools: Politics and Policies / Wong, Kenneth K.
Improving State School Finance Systems: New Realities Create Need to Re-engineer School Finance Structures / Odden, Allan R.
Philadelphia, PA : Consortium for Policy Research in Education, University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education, c1999.
Summary of SB 4 : School Finance and Property Tax Relief / Goodson, John J.
Educational Adequacy: Building an Adequate School Finance System / Whitney, Terry N..
Denver, Colo. : National Conference of State Legislatures, c1998.
Financing Schools for High Performance: Strategies for Improving the Use of Educational Resources. / Odden, Allan R.
San Francisco : Jossey-Bass Publishers, c1998.
Austin, TX : The Group, c1997.
Financing Schools / Behrman, Richard E., ed.
Milwaukee : Rethinking Schools, 1997.
Washington, D.C. : The Finance Project, 1997.
Raising money for education : a guide to the property tax / Monk, David H.
Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Corwin Press, c1997.
Reforming School Finance / Chi, Keon S.
Lexington, KY : Council of State Governments, 1997.
Texas public school finance and related issues / Clark, Catherine P.
Austin : Texas Center for Educational Research, 1997.
Texas School Finance Reform : an IDRA Perspective / Cárdenas, José A.
San Antonio, Tex. : Intercultural Development Research Association, 1997.
The basics of Texas public school finance 6th ed., rev. 1996. / Walker, Billy D.
Austin, Tex. : Texas Association of School Boards, c1996.
Does Money Matter?: The Effect of School Resources on Student Achievement and Adult Success / Burtless, Gary T.
Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution Press, c1996.
Albany, N.Y. : Center for the Study of the States, Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, c1996.
Denver, Colo. : National Conference of State Legislatures, c1996.
America's gamble : public school finance and state lotteries / Jones, Thomas H.
Lancaster, Penn. : Technomic, c1994.
Fiscal Equalization for State and Local Government Finance / Anderson, John E., ed.
TASB Special Committee on School Revenue and Funding Position Statement : as adopted by the TASB Board of Trustees on July 30, 1994 / Special Committee on School Revenue and Funding. Texas Association of School Boards.
Austin, Tex. :Texas Association of School Boards, 1994?
Dallas, Tex. : National Center for Policy Analysis, 1993.
Austin, Tex. : Division of Planning Coordination, Office of the Governor, 1975.
The crisis in school finance / Cárdenas, José A.
San Antonio, Tex. : Texans for Educational Excellence, 1974?
Rethinking School Finance: an Agenda for the 1990s / Odden, Allan R., ed.
San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, c1992.
Austin : The Committee, 1965.
Tentative recommendations to Governor Dolph Briscoe regarding the restructuring of public elementary and secondary school finance / Governor's Office of Educational Research and Planning.
Austin, Tex. : Governor's Office of Educational Research and Planning, 1974.
Texas' 1975 school finance law : how far are we on the road to equity? / Brischetto, Robert R.
Texas school finance: a basic primer / Cárdenas, José A.
Which are the poor school districts? : myths in public school finance / Cárdenas, José A.
National Archives, Fort Worth, Texas and Washington, D.C.

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