Neeley v. West Orange-Cove Consolidated Independent School District

in which Chief Justice JEFFERSON, Justice O’NEILL, Justice WAINWRIGHT, Justice MEDINA, Justice GREEN, and Justice JOHNSON joined.

Once again this Court is called upon to determine whether the funding of Texas public schools violates the Texas Constitution.1 Three groups of school districts raise three separate challenges.

The plaintiffs, 47 districts led by West Orange-Cove Consolidated Independent School District,2 which educate over a fourth of the State’s more than 4.3 million school children, contend that property taxes, though imposed locally, have become in effect a state property tax…