AUSTIN - Texas school districts and parents are headed back to the courthouse in another effort to get more equitable funding for public schools.

A coalition representing public school districts, taxpayers and parents filed a lawsuit against the state in Travis County district court Monday. The Texas Taxpayer & Student Fairness Coalition claims the state's public school finance system is unconstitutional because it does not treat Texas taxpayers and schoolchildren fairly.

Taxpayers in 546 school districts could impose the maximum $1.17 tax rate to support their local schools and not come close to generating the same revenue that wealthier school districts get at a $1.04 rate, according to the suit. For example, Fort Worth and Austin independent school districts have roughly the same number of students, but the Austin district gets about $100 million more a year than Fort Worth, even with identical tax rates.

"It's not equitable. It's not fair. It's just crazy," said Austin lawyer Rick Gray, lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, which include 150 school districts. He said he expects many districts, taxpayers, parents and business owners to join the litigation.

Several Houston-area school districts are planning to join a separate lawsuit in coming weeks. Trustees of the Fort Bend Independent School District were the first large district in the area to confirm their intent, voting Monday to authorize a legal challenge against the state's school funding system. Members of the Houston ISD board are planning to discuss possible legal options Thursday, according to a spokesman.

"The current system of funding Texas public education does not treat our children fairly," Fort Bend ISD school board President Susan Hohnbaum said in a statement. "Providing a quality education has become a political issue, and we at Fort Bend ISD do not feel that is the intent of the state constitution. We believe taking a stand is the right thing to do for our students in Fort Bend ISD and for all of the students in Texas."

Wide range of funding

There have been six constitutional challenges to Texas' school finance system to reach the Texas Supreme Court since the landmark 1989 Edgewood v. Kirby decision in which the court ruled "districts must have substantially equal access to similar revenue per pupil at similar levels of tax effort."

Per-student funding in Texas now ranges from less than $5,000 per child in some districts to more than $10,000 in others, according to the Equity Center, which represents 690 school districts. The Texas Constitution requires an "efficient" public school system. Funding schools based on the ZIP code of students' parents hardly meets that standard, Gray and others contend.

Texas' school enrollment grows by about 85,000 children per year. Citing budget problems, lawmakers did not provide school districts with additional money to pay for additional students in this year's legislative session.

The offices of the governor and the Texas attorney general declined comment on the suit Tuesday.

Disputes over equity and adequacy "have been the hallmarks of school funding lawsuits since the beginning of time," said Senate Education Chair Florence Shapiro, R-Plano. "We have never been able to define what an 'adequate' education is."

She said legislators have made diligent efforts to conform to court orders involving school funding. She acknowledged that the widely loathed "target revenue" system installed five years ago was not supposed to last this long. The temporary plan has produced wide funding disparities between neighboring school districts.

Texas legislators approved a new school funding plan in 2006, following a state Supreme Court order. That plan reduced local school property taxes for operations by about one-third. To replace the lost property tax revenue, legislators approved a new business tax. It does not bring in enough money, however, to replace the lower property tax revenue, creating, in effect, an annual structural deficit of at least $2 billion.

The all-Republican Supreme Court warned state leaders in its 2005 ruling to dramatically change the state's school funding system, which relies heavily on property taxes.

Proving that Texas' school funding system is inadequate to meet the state's tougher academic accountability standards will be the more difficult portion of the case to prove, Gray acknowledged.

Reporter Ericka Mellon contributed to this story.

gscharrer@express-news.net