Texas high court to hear school case

HOUSTON — The Texas Supreme Court agreed Friday to weigh the constitutionality of school funding in the second-largest state, after more than 600 school districts convinced an Austin judge last year that the current system unlawfully discriminates against the poor.

The majority of Texas’ school districts sued the state in 2011 after the Legislature stripped $5.4 billion from the education budget. The cuts left schools struggling to meet enhanced accountability standards with inadequate funding, according to the districts.

State Judge John Dietz in Austin made an initial ruling against the current school-finance system in 2013, finding it operated as an unconstitutional statewide property tax and distributed funding unevenly among rich and poor districts.

He reopened testimony last January to determine whether lawmakers’ efforts to restore the budget and improve parity among districts during an intervening legislative session had solved the problem. In August, he ruled the system was still broken and gave the Legislature until this June to fix it.

The last round of briefs are due at the Austin-based high court by mid-August, after which the justices are to hear oral arguments.