Paxton Blasts "Never-Ending" School Finance Lawsuits
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday called for an end to “a never-ending cycle of perpetual litigation” over how the state funds its public schools, describing the latest school finance case pending before the Texas Supreme Court as another example of parties inappropriately turning to the courts when they don’t get what they want from the Legislature.
“Unfortunately, opponents of Texas policy use the courts as legislative do-overs where they can seek to accomplish what they couldn’t accomplish during the (legislative) session,” the state’s top civil lawyer said during a brief speech to an annual gathering of tax and fiscal experts.
The current lawsuit is the seventh since 1984 challenging the state’s school finance system that has reached the state’s highest civil court, which has no deadline to decide the case. It was filed by more than two-thirds of school districts in 2011 after state lawmakers slashed $5.4 billion from the public education budget to help balance a post-recession budget shortfall.
During the long-running challenge, lawyers for the more than 600 districts have argued that the Legislature is violating its constitutional duty to provide an adequate and efficient public school system, enacting large cuts even as rigorous new testing and accountability systems raised the bar on expectations.
[font color=330099]Perhaps Paxton should concede that the reason why Texas school districts have to continuously sue the state is because the Legislature refuses to adequately fund public education?[/font] 
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