The Texas Supreme Court gets its sixth school finance case in 20 years Lawyers for the state told the eight justices on the Texas Supreme Court that the Legislature -- not the court -- is the final arbiter of whether the state's schools are providing adequate educations to the children of Texas. The issue simply doesn't belong to the courts, and that's that. If the courts don't take the same position, the argument goes, they've left law behind and ventured into policy matters that are, according to the state's reading of the Texas Constitution, the sole discretion of the Legislature. Lawyers who are suing the state say the Legislature has trapped schools between rising standards and tight budgets, denying them the ability to raise the resources they need to meet the goals that have been set for the schools. They said the state's accreditation system holds students accountable for test scores without holding school districts and the state fully accountable for the performance of the schools, creating the appearance of improvement without measuring whether the system is providing the "general diffusion of knowledge" required by the constitution. The judges kicked that around, asking how bad the schools could get without judicial intervention, why they can't set a standard for adequacy just like they do in other areas, why the state says the school districts are asking the court to order lawmakers to spend more money, and whether the schools have to fail before legal remedies are available. They asked whether knowledge is being generally diffused when dropout rates are high and the state ranks near the bottom in the percentage of students who go on to college after high school. They asked whether the districts really have legal standing to sue, and why their side doesn't include any parents of school children or the children themselves. They wanted to know whether the school districts can ask for relief when the students -- and not the districts -- are possibly getting a raw deal. The court asked the lawyers on both sides whether the state's cap on local property tax rates had become a de facto state property tax, which isn't allowed by the constitution. They asked whether removing the cap on property taxes would solve that constitutional problem even though it might be unpopular. They asked policy questions, pushing the school district lawyers to guess at whether their positions represent the views or desires of parents with kids in schools. They asked those lawyers whether evidence of steady progress on test scores is evidence that the schools have adequate resources to do their work. They wanted to know whether districts that are both small and poor would do better if they were merged into larger and richer districts. The question with posting government records on the Internet is like the line in W.P. Kinsella's book Shoeless Joe (the movie was titled Field of Dreams): If you build it, will they come? A test: The Texas Supreme Court's eight remaining justices heard arguments in the school finance case, and you can listen to the whole show by clicking on a link at the court's own website. Go to: www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/oralarguments/audio_2005h.asp. The case you want is titled "NEELEY, ET AL, v. WEST ORANGE COVE, ET AL" and the audio link is reached by clicking on the case number you'll see on the left on that site. Want something to read while you're listening? Case files are also online: www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/ebriefs/files/20050145.htm.