Katy ISD is the latest in a growing list of school districts across the state to join in a lawsuit to force the Texas Legislature to make changes in public education funding.
During Monday’s school board meeting, trustees voted unanimously to engage the services of the law firm of Thompson & Horton to represent the district in the lawsuit.
Thompson & Horton is the school district’s contract law firm and will also represent numerous other school districts across the state in the litigation.
David Thompson, a partner in the firm, told trustees he expects more than half the school districts in the state to eventually join in the suit in an effort to force legislators to reform the method used to fund public education.
He also the legislature was expecting the lawsuit.
“I think it is one of those things where everyone regrets that it is necessary to do, but I am going to tell you very candidly from my regular conversations with members of the Legislature both the (Texas) House and the Senate, it’s not unexpected,” Thompson said.
The pivotal issue, according to Thompson, is that the Texas Constitution mandates the state provide “adequate” funding for education. He also said this will be the sixth time school districts have sued the state over its funding mechanism and “the state has prevailed only one time” in the earlier lawsuits.
Trustee Terry Huckaby asked Thompson how this suit might solve the problem when previous litigation has not.
“It seems everybody’s real fast to sue, but nobody’s got a plan to solve the problem,” Huckaby said. “Instead of the negatives, when are we going to solve the problem?”
Thompson agreed that, despite the earlier lawsuits, state education funding was “still a mess” but this time the plaintiffs plan to ask the court to retain jurisdiction to enforce the outcome. He also said while the overall funding problem had not yet been solved, earlier litigation “has made our (school) system better.”
The attorney also said he shared Huckaby’s frustration, but the ultimate responsibility for developing a working funding solution rested with the Texas Legislature.
“We need to honestly recognize the cost of the high standards we are establishing for all kids and then we need to have a funding system that’s actually tied to what it is we are trying to accomplish, instead of treating those as two completely unrelated decisions,” Thompson said.
The cost of taking part in the lawsuit is based on a formula of $1 per student based on the district’s average daily attendance. The cost to the distinct will be capped at $65,000.
The only one’s that will make any money off of this deal will be the lawyers..It will be a windfall for them.