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Neeley v. West Orange-Cove Consolidated Independent School Dist.11/22/2005
Argued July 6, 2005
JUSTICE HECHT delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CHIEF JUSTICE JEFFERSON, JUSTICE O'NEILL, JUSTICE WAINWRIGHT, JUSTICE MEDINA, JUSTICE GREEN, and JUSTICE JOHNSON joined.
JUSTICE BRISTER filed a dissenting opinion.
JUSTICE WILLETT did not participate in the decision.
Once again this Court is called upon to determine whether the funding of Texas public schools violates the Texas Constitution. Three groups of school districts raise three separate challenges.
The plaintiffs, 47 districts led by West Orange-Cove Consolidated Independent School District, which educate over a fourth of the State's more than 4.3 million school children, contend that property taxes, though imposed locally, have become in effect a state property tax prohibited by article VIII, section 1-e of the Texas Constitution, because the State leaves districts no meaningful discretion to tax below maximum rates. Article VIII, section 1-e states simply: "No State ad valorem taxes shall be levied upon any property within this State." We held in Edgewood III that " n ad valorem tax is a state tax when it is imposed directly by the State or when the State so completely controls the levy, assessment and disbursement of revenue, either directly or indirectly, that the authority employed is without meaningful discretion."
The other two groups, intervenors, totaling an additional 282 districts, also educate about a fourth of the State's school children. One group is led by Edgewood Independent School District, the other by Alvarado Independent School District. Intervenors contend that funding for school operations and facilities is inefficient in violation of article VII, section 1 of the Texas Constitution, because children in property-poor districts do not have substantially equal access to education revenue.
All three groups also contend that the public school system cannot achieve " general diffusion of knowledge" as required by article VII, section 1 of the Texas Constitution, because the system is underfunded.
Article VII, section 1 states: A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools. This provision sets three standards central to this case. One is that the public school system be efficient. In Edgewood I, we held:
There is no reason to think that "efficient" meant anything different in 1875 [when article VII, section 1 was written] from what it now means. "Efficient" conveys the meaning of effective or productive of results and connotes the use of resources so as to produce results with little waste; this meaning does not appear to have changed over time. As applied to public school finance, we added, constitutional efficiency requires that " hildren who live in poor districts and children who live in rich districts must be afforded a substantially equal opportunity to have access to educational funds." We have referred to efficiency in the broader sense as "qualitative", and to efficiency in the context of funding as "financial". The parties have also referred to financial efficiency as "quantitative".
Another standard set by the constitutional provision is that public education achieve " general diffusion of knowledge . . . essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people". We have labeled this standard "adequacy", and the parties have adopted the same convention. The label is simply shorthand for the requirement that public e
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