Texas school districts challenging finance system awarded $4.2 million in legal fees
Hundreds of Texas school districts that successfully challenged Texas’ school finance system have scored a follow-up victory when a state appeals court awarded them $4.2 million in legal fees. The court overruled objections by state attorneys in a unanimous decision and said its decision was based in part on the failure of the state to file a timely appeal after a state judge awarded fees to the school districts. “We hold that the award of attorneys’ fees to each of the school districts was equitable and just, in light of the fact that the districts were required to pursue extensive and costly litigation in order to remedy a school finance problem with statewide implications,” the three-judge panel said. The lawsuit culminated in a decision by the Texas Supreme Court in November 2005 that ordered the Legislature to fix the state’s unconstitutional property tax system to finance public schools. Six months later in a special session, state lawmakers approved a school funding system that was less dependent on property taxes. The legislation reduced local school property taxes by a third and replaced the revenue with high taxes on business and smokers. While the school districts won on the property tax argument, they lost on another argument that the state was not providing adequate funding to educate their students. The high court ruled for the state on the latter issue, but did caution that current funding levels for schools are barely adequate. Because it was a split decision, the attorney general’s office later argued that the school districts were not entitled to recovery of legal fees in the case, but the appellate court justices said state attorneys made their argument too late and should have raised the point when the case was originally appealed to the supreme court. Because of that failure, the state waived its right to contest a lower-court decision from the state district court awarding the fees. Dallas lawyer George Bramblett, who represented one group of school districts, says the $4.2 million award will go back to the districts, which have already paid their lawyers. “It is a reasonable amount considering that it covers legal work done over six years,” he says. “We clearly had a right to recover fees because we won the case.”
Dallas Morning News
By Terrence Stutz
[Full story]
[Editor’s Note: The November 2005 ruling is summarized below.]
[NSBA School Law pages on Neeley v. West Orange-Clover Consolidated Indep. Sch. Dist., No. 05-0145]