Good.
The Houston school board committed Thursday to suing the state, adding to a growing list of districts taking legal action to force Texas lawmakers to improve the way they fund public education.
Trustees of the Houston Independent School District voted 5-0 to join a pending lawsuit that will ask a Travis County court to declare Texas’ school funding system unconstitutional, claiming it’s inadequate to meet increasing educational standards.
HISD, the largest district in the state, joins Fort Bend, Pearland, La Porte and Sweeny in the Houston area in pledging to join a lawsuit to be filed by attorney David Thompson, who has litigated prior funding suits. More districts are expected to follow.
“We are dramatically raising standards more than any time in the history of Texas and we are simultaneously cutting funds,” Thompson said.
HISD trustees Paula Harris, Larry Marshall, Manuel Rodriguez Jr., Anna Eastman and Juliet Stipeche voted in favor of the suit. Trustees Greg Meyers, Harvin Moore, Mike Lunceford and Carole Mims Galloway were absent.
I hope someone asks the absentees for their opinion on this. I know that Harvin Moore has been vocal about the unfairness of HISD getting shorted by the state and possibly having to raise its tax rate when it has worked hard to be able to maintain that tax rate, so I imagine he’d be on board. I can’t see Galloway being opposed, either. I don’t know enough about Lunceford or Meyers to speculate. See here for some background, and here for HISD’s statement. Hair balls has more.
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