The Texas Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that while the state’s funding formula may not be perfect, it meets minimal state constitutional requirements.
“Our judicial responsibility is not to second-guess or micromanage Texas education policy or to issue edicts from on high increasing financial inputs in hopes of increasing educational outputs,” said Justice Don Willett in the ruling.
The challenge to the formula was brought by 600 school districts and the state’s charter schools. They argued that the state’s legislature had failed to meet its constitutional obligation to provide an adequate education to Texas’ 5 million students.
But the state argued that money is not “pixie dust” that would magically fix schools and that the state outperforms neighboring states.
