American Notes SCHOOLS

Like many other states striving for fairness in funding rich and poor school districts, Texas has found no quick fix. After the state supreme court last year affirmed a 1987 district court ruling that the existing system was unconstitutional, Governor Bill Clements and state lawmakers wrestled with the issue through four rancorous special sessions. They finally adopted a formula for bolstering less affluent districts with additional state funds. Last week District Court Judge F. Scott McCown pitched out that plan. Ruling in a suit by the poor school districts that filed the original action, McCown concluded, "The rich districts are left rich, the poor districts poor."

McCown found that the new plan, putting an extra $528 million from sales taxes into school financing, was insufficient. Moreover, he said, the plan's way of allotting the funds was unfair and failed to achieve the structural overhaul that the state supreme court had ordered. McCown gave the state until September next year to get it right.