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Fifth grade students work on their assignments in their Art of Thinking class at HISD\u2019s A.A. Milne Elementary School in Houston, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. HISD’s Milne Elementary School is second most improved elementary schools in the Houston area according to Children At Risk’s annual rankings.<\/p>\n
Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
A lawsuit by Midland\u2019s school board<\/a> to overhaul the way Texas funds education could have been a rallying cry for districts that have long bristled at having to turn over billions of local tax dollars<\/a>\u00a0to the state each year.<\/p>\n But two weeks later, it appears Midland will have few allies.<\/p>\n After years of crackdowns from the state\u2019s Republican leaders, superintendents aren\u2019t jumping on board to challenge Gov. Greg Abbott or his education commissioner, Mike Morath. Advocacy groups are silent or oppose it. Questions have swirled around whether the litigation is intended to help Abbott\u2019s goal of eliminating school property taxes next year.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n READ MORE: Texas district challenges state school finance system: \u2018They\u2019re using us as tax collectors\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n So far, no one has joined the suit.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everybody\u2019s gun-shy,\u201d said Josh Sanderson, executive director of Equity Center, one of the groups that led the last legal effort, which ended in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re definitely not going to get involved in this one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The response is a dramatic change from a decade ago, when more than two-thirds of the state\u2019s 1,200 school districts challenged the state\u2019s byzantine school finance system at the Texas Supreme Court.<\/p>\n For decades, Texas has helped pay for schools<\/a> by collecting property taxes from property-rich districts and redistributing excess dollars to poorer ones. The practice, nicknamed \u201cRobin Hood,\u201d has been the subject of multiple lawsuits<\/a> by superintendents and school boards since 1994.<\/p>\n Midland\u2019s lawsuit argues that recent legislation has turned the system into a statewide property tax. Morath effectively sets the property tax rates by dictating how much districts can raise and how the money is spent, leaving school districts with little discretion, the suit says. This year, the commissioner\u2019s calculations mean Midland must levy $313 million in property taxes to pay for its daily operations, with $83 million of that sent to the state.<\/p>\n The district\u2019s trustees also argued last month that the system has become warped. Midland is rich in property taxes thanks to its oil and gas operations, but its students are not.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Robin Hood is truly doing what it was designed to do, why would you take money out of a school district that has 60% of its students economically disadvantaged?\u201d Midland school board President Josh Guinn said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Midland trustees mentioned that Grapevine-Colleyville and Carroll school districts were interested in joining, but spokespeople for both districts would not say whether they were considering it. School districts that pay the most under Robin Hood, including Austin ISD, also haven\u2019t joined.<\/p>\n