By: Craddick H.J.R. No. 119
A JOINT RESOLUTION
proposing a constitutional amendment relating to the support and
maintenance and an efficient system of public schools.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 1, Article VII, Texas Constitution, is
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 1. A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to
the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall
be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make
suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient
system of public free schools so that every school district will
have substantially equal access to similar revenues per student at
similar levels of tax effort. A statute enacted by the Legislature
to provide for an efficient system or to provide for its support and
maintenance is presumed to meet the requirements of this
constitution if the statute rationally furthers a legitimate State
purpose or interest such as efficiency or local control.
SECTION 2. Section 3, Article VII, Texas Constitution, is
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 3. (a) One-fourth of the revenue derived from the
State occupation taxes [and poll tax of one dollar on every
inhabitant of the State, between the ages of twenty-one and sixty
years,] shall be set apart annually for the benefit of the public
free schools; [and in addition thereto, there shall be levied and
collected an annual ad valorem State tax of such an amount not to
exceed thirty-
five cents on the one hundred ($100.00) dollars
valuation, as with the available school fund arising from all other
sources, will be sufficient to maintain and support the public
schools of this State for a period of not less than six months in
each year,] and it shall be the duty of the State Board of Education
to set aside a sufficient amount [out] of revenue [the said tax] to
provide free text books for the use of children attending the public
free schools of this State. The Legislature may make
appropriations[; provided, however, that should the limit of
taxation herein named be insufficient the deficit may be met by
appropriation] from the general funds of the State for the support
of the public free schools, and a statute enacted by the Legislature
setting the amount of those appropriations or the method by which
they are distributed is presumed to meet the requirements of this
constitution if the statute rationally furthers a legitimate State
purpose or interest such as efficiency or local control.
(b) The [and the] Legislature may also provide for the
formation of school districts [district] by general laws; and all
such school districts may embrace parts of two or more counties, and
the Legislature shall be authorized to pass laws [for the
assessment and collection of taxes in all said districts and] for
the management and control of the public school or schools of such
districts, whether such districts are composed of territory wholly
within a county or in parts of two or more counties. The[, and the]
Legislature by general law may authorize each school district to
impose an [additional] ad valorem local tax [to be levied and
collected within all school districts heretofore formed or
hereafter formed,] for the further maintenance of public free
schools, and for the erection and equipment of school buildings
therein; provided that a majority of the qualified property
taxpaying voters of the district voting at an election to be held
for that purpose, shall vote such tax not to exceed in any one year
one ($1.00) dollar on the one hundred dollars valuation of the
property subject to taxation in such district, but the limitation
upon the amount of school district tax herein authorized shall not
apply to incorporated cities or towns constituting separate and
independent school districts, nor to independent or common school
districts created by general or special law.
(c) A law authorized by this section providing for the
imposition of local taxes by school districts is presumed to meet
the requirements of this constitution if there is any evidence that
the law rationally furthers a legitimate State purpose or interest.
SECTION 3. (a) The constitutional amendment proposed by
this resolution shall be submitted to the voters at an election to
be held November 5, 2019.
(b) The constitutional amendment proposed by this
resolution shall be printed on the ballot as one proposition and in
a manner to provide for voting for or against the proposition: "The
constitutional amendment:
(1) providing for equal educational opportunity;
(2) providing for local control by all school
districts of local taxes levied for the support of public schools;
(3) providing for legislative control of the methods
by which state funds are distributed to school districts and by
which school districts are formed; and
(4) restricting the power of the courts to overturn a
legislative decision regarding the system of or support for public
education by adopting federal constitutional law that also
preserves equal access to the courts."