79R1506 ESH-D

By:  Escobar                                                    H.J.R. No. 29 



A JOINT RESOLUTION

proposing a constitutional amendment establishing minimum 
standards of state support and equity for the public school finance 
system and restricting the purposes for which money necessary to 
meet those standards may be appropriated.
	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)  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.  In 
complying with this section, the Legislature shall:
		(1)  provide state funding in an amount constituting at 
least 50 percent of the cost of maintaining and operating the public 
school system; and
		(2)  ensure that in any State fiscal year at least 98 
percent of the public school students in this State attend schools 
in school districts that have equal access to the same level of 
funding per student.
	(b)  Before each regular session of the Legislature, the 
comptroller of public accounts shall estimate the amount of State 
funding required, under current State laws relating to school 
funding, to comply with Subsection (a) of this section and shall 
certify that amount to the governor, the lieutenant governor, and 
the speaker of the house of representatives.  In the State fiscal 
biennium following the regular legislative session for which the 
certification is made, the comptroller of public accounts shall 
transfer to a special account in the state treasury on the first day 
of each month an amount equal to one-twelfth of the amount certified 
under this subsection.  Amounts transferred to the special fund may 
be appropriated only for purposes of funding public schools, except 
that in the case of a fiscal emergency, the Legislature, by a vote 
of four-fifths of the membership of each house, may appropriate not 
more than 10 percent of the money to be transferred to the special 
fund for a purpose other than funding public schools.
	SECTION 2.  This proposed constitutional amendment shall be 
submitted to the voters at an election to be held November 8, 2005.  
The ballot shall be printed to permit voting for or against the 
proposition:  "The constitutional amendment establishing minimum 
standards of state support and equity for the public school finance 
system and restricting the purposes for which money necessary to 
meet those standards may be appropriated."