GCISD joins lawsuit against the state

Last week the GCISD Board of Trustees voted to join the lawsuit to be filed by the law firm of Haynes and Boone against the state of Texas regarding public school finance. Haynes and Boone is representing several Chapter 41 ("Robin Hood") districts in this lawsuit. The lawsuit will claim the current public school financial system does not provide enough funding to support an adequate education for our children, and that the current system results in a de facto state-wide property tax, which is illegal under the state constitution.

It is unfortunate that districts need to depend on this type of legal action to force the state legislature to provide adequate funding for education.  While the cost of education rises, not only due to normal cost of living increases, but also due to the drastic change in demographics in our state, the legislature follows a political agenda that sacrifices the future of the state by short-changing public schools.

This should serve as a lesson for all of us. YOUR VOTE MATTERS! We, the people, elected the current Senate and House members in our state.  If education is important to you, please look at the voting records of the candidates in the upcoming election prior to going to the polls.  If you do not want public school programs to be cut, or class sizes to increase, or low college admission rates, please support pro-education candidates in the 2012 elections.

If you are one of the many citizens in this state that does not vote, please reconsider. The future of our state is on the line. Texas is in the bottom 15% in the nation in terms of school funding. In GCISD, our leaders and employees continue to do more with less, as they maintain high quality school programs, control class sizes and service a more diverse student body without laying off personnel, while receiving less funds from Austin.  But this will not last forever if we allow our legislators to continue sacrificing public schools.  We need all pro-education citizens to go to the polls in 2012 and make their vote count.

You can watch Dr. Ryan's announcement about GCISD joining the lawsuit in this link