It isn't a hypothetical question -- Texas is under a court order to spend no more money on schools as of today, pending a fix of our school financing system.

State district Judge John Dietz last autumn ruled the Texas school funding system unconstitutional and issued an Oct. 1 deadline for the Legislature to fix the system or stop funding it.

Lawmakers have since failed three times — once during the regular legislative session and in two failed special sessions called for the issue — to overhaul the way Texas pays for public schools.

The state, represented by the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, has appealed Dietz's ruling to the Texas Supreme Court. The state's high court is expected to issue a decision in the case within the coming weeks, but it wasn't in the court's Friday package of decisions

Now the appeal to the state Supreme Court should have resulted in an automatic stay, but no actual order has been issued. Some districts, especially those which filed suit, are not sure what they should do. The state attorney general says that the filing of the appeal made the stay automatic, but no court has spoken on the issue.

Not, of course, that the schools do not have the money to open.

Even so, schools receive their funding from the state on the 25th of each month, meaning schools are funded at least until Oct. 25, said Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency.

"They've just gotten their payments," she said. "Schools will be open in most parts of Texas — the guys that didn't have hurricane damage will be open."

Yeah, that is true -- but do they have the authority to spend it?

So who knows -- the schools here in Texas may be shutting down sometinme in the next three weeks. Let's wait and see.

Posted by: Greg at 12:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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