A case pitting Texas school districts against the state over cuts in education funding now has an official place on the judicial calendar, with a Texas district court judge having set a trial date for Oct. 22.
The litigation was spurred by the legislature’s decision last year to cut $5.4 billion in funding for K-12 education from its next two-year budget. It pits the state against four groups of districts that will in various ways argue that the latest cuts have created a school funding system that is “inequitable, inadequate, and unconstitutional,” to use the words of Education Justice, a nonprofit group that offers support services to education advocates in school funding cases. More than 500 Texas districts sued after the $5.4 billion cut was finalized.
As the Dallas Morning News story notes, the state’s legislative leaders have said the cuts were necessary and proper, given the state’s $23 billion revenue hole.
