A number of state legislators are calling on their fellow lawmakers to act now regarding school funding, rather than wait another two years for a Supreme Court response to an appeal.
This comes in response to Monday's ruling by State District Judge John Dietz that the system Texas uses to fund the public school system violates the state's constitution.State Senator Leticia Van de Putte said they should at least provide funding to keep up with school population growths that were unaccounted for the past two years, and provide funding for the next two
years as well."We're very excited. Our Texas economy is doing well and we boast that we have all these families coming in, but we're not sending any more money to our school districts," said Senator Van de Putte. "Basically the state is saying, 'you got more kids but we're not funding them.' Well, we can do that right now. We don't need a court to tell us that we need to fund the kids that at least walk into those school doors every morning."
Several state officials have claimed they plan to appeal the ruling, but State Representative Michael Villareal is concerned about what would happen to students in the public school system if they have to go another two years without additional funding.
"If you're a Junior in high school and our state leaders choose to drag out this fight, pretty soon you're going to have graduated from high school and you will not receive any of the benefits of the state addressing the finding of the trial judge," said Villareal. "If we were to make an increase in the state's investment in public education this session that could go into affect this coming Fall, so that school administrators, teachers, and school children have the benefits of more resources."
By Marissa A. Wagner
