Governor Greg Abbott wants the Texas Supreme Court to send the state’s school finance lawsuit back to the lower court.
In late August, Governor Greg Abbott filed an amicus brief with the Texas Supreme Court, pointing to why it would be in the best interest of the court to send the case challenging the state’s system for funding schools back to the lower courts. In his letter, Abbott asks the court to consider all the education-related bills passed by the Legislature in 2015. He argues the Legislature acted meaningfully in correcting the issue related to school funding.
“And the governor particularly pointed to some of the increase in funding and some of the changes in the accountability system. We filled a response, all four of the school district groups representing well over 600-districts, over 75-percent of the kids in the state did file a response,” Houston attorney David Thompson explained. Thompson represents a large number of school districts that have sued the state, including several in Bexar County.
“We pointed out that there were no substantive changes in the school funding system. There were no updates to any of the formulas, we’re still using formulas and weights from the 1980s,” Thompson said.
Thompson calls the brief a simple delay tactic. It could take months for the State Supreme Court to come up with a decision.
