EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Monday that school districts are now authorized to issue annual A to F performance ratings for all Texas public schools.
According to a statement from the Attorney General’s office, Paxton and the Fifteenth Court of Appeals will now uphold legal authority to issue annual performance ratings for all public schools within the state.
The statement explained that in 2023, external events prevented those ratings from being issued before the yearly deadline, prompting a legal challenge by school districts.
Districts within the state claimed Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath had no authority to issue the ratings subsequently.
A Travis County district court agreed and prevented the ratings from being released, ignoring the Commissioner’s statutory obligation to issue them, according to the statement.
Despite state law requiring the annual issuance of A to F grades for public schools, rogue school districts have fought for years to hide their report cards,” said Attorney General Paxton. “This is a major victory for accountability and transparency in Texas’s educational system that will strengthen the ability of parents and students to ensure that public schools fulfill their responsibilities.
The Fifteenth Court of Appeals had annulled the wrongful ruling and dismissed the school districts’ lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction.
The statement also mentioned Chief Justice Scott Brister’s concurring opinion, stating that he discouraged school districts and lower courts from continuing to use the judicial system to interfere with the accountability system enacted by the legislature.
“Failing schools require prompt action from state and local officials, from students and their families, and voters,” Chief Justice Scott Brister explained. “The 19-month delay occasioned by litigating these issues in court shows why the Legislature could reasonably declare that the Commissioner should be the final and ultimate arbiter of them. Every time a judicial resolution is sought, a final resolution will be delayed for a year or two.”
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