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78R1724 CAS-F

By:  Van Arsdale                                                H.J.R. No. 33 



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 by amending Subsections (b), (c), and (e) and adding 
Subsection (f) to read as follows:
	(b)  It shall be the duty of the State Board of Education to 
set aside a sufficient amount of revenue [available funds] to 
provide free text books for the use of children attending the public 
free schools of this State.
	(c)  The Legislature may make appropriations [Should the 
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.
	(e)  The Legislature shall be authorized to pass laws [for 
the assessment and collection of taxes in all school 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] 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 voters of the district voting at an election to be 
held for that purpose, shall approve the tax.
	(f)  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)  This proposed constitutional amendment 
shall be submitted to the voters at an election to be held November 
4, 2003.
	(b)  This proposed constitutional amendment shall be printed 
on the ballot as one proposition and in a manner to permit 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."