Fifty years ago, on March 21, 1973, the United States Supreme Court decided the San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez case. The opinion highlighted the terrible disparities in education between low-wealth and high-wealth Texas school districts.Unfortunately, for political reasons and to keep the Supreme Court from dealing with other contentious issues, the justices upheld the Texas school finance system.
Alamo Heights had a significantly lower tax rate than Edgewood but had almost twice as much money per child to spend on its students. The U.S. Supreme Court admitted that if the court applied the strict scrutiny applied to cases involving privacy or speech, the Texas system would surely fail.