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Landmark public education suit filed
On this day in 1984, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational
Fund (MALDEF) filed a landmark suit against Texas education commissioner
William Kirby in Travis County. In Edgewood ISD v. Kirby, filed
on behalf of the Edgewood Independent School District, MALDEF charged
that the state's methods of funding public education violated at least
four principles of the state constitution, which obligate the state
legislature to provide an efficient and free public school system.
Initially, eight school districts and twenty-one parents were
represented in the suit; eventually, sixty-seven other school districts
and many other parents and students joined the original plaintiffs. The
plaintiffs in Edgewood contested the state's reliance on local
property taxes to finance public education on the grounds that property
values vary greatly from district to district, thus creating inequality
in education funds. The case took years to work its way through the
courts, but in 1990 the Texas Supreme Court delivered a unanimous
decision siding with the plaintiffs. In 1993, after several earlier
attempts were declared unconstitutional, the legislature passed a school
finance reform plan comprising several options for equalizing funding.
In 1995 the Texas Supreme Court found the plan constitutional but ruled
that the legislature still needed to work on equalizing and improving
school facilities throughout the state.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- MEXICAN AMERICAN LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND
- EDUCATION
- GOVERNMENT
- CIVIL-RIGHTS MOVEMENT
- EDGEWOOD ISD V. KIRBY
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Murderers and bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde gunned down in Louisiana (1934)
- State establishes agency to encourage immigration (1871)
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