The Texas Supreme Court cut Gov. Rick Perry and the Republican-controlled Legislature some slack when it gave lawmakers until June 1 to craft a new school finance plan. Yet, while it allows them to get through the March primary before having to address the issue in a special session, the deadline also permits voters to put candidates on the spot when they campaign. Voters should ask Republicans why, now that they control both houses and the governor, they have been unable to solve this escalating problem of funding public schools.

Many legislators were elected in 2002 and 2004 by promising to get rid of Robin Hood, and yet lawmakers have failed repeatedly to agree on plans to cut the share-the-wealth system and add new revenues from other business and consumer taxes. The Senate wasn’t the problem. Senators worked hard under the leadership of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Sen. Florence Shapiro to fashion alternative plans. The real bottleneck was the House and Speaker Tom Craddick, whose only response seemed to be “No.”

Craddick wanted to wait to see what the court would do, and he now has his wish. But he can easily interpret the court’s order as a way to do the minimum, which could be merely lifting the current $1.50 per $100 valuation cap on the property tax rate.

The cap is what caused the Supreme Court to declare the school funding system unconstitutional. Almost 70 percent of the state’s school districts are either at the cap or within a nickel of it, meaning they have little or no ability to raise more revenue. Supreme Court justices said that amounts to a state property tax because local districts can no longer control their own taxes.

As for the governor, he has failed to point the way to change in the past, leaving it up to lawmakers to hash it out. Now he’s appointed a blue-ribbon commission to come up with some taxation alternatives, headed by former Comptroller John Sharp, who knows which businesses are getting off easy and who may be able to persuade some industries to pick up more of the tax load.

Likewise, current Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn knows where the little or untaxed bodies are buried. She has long proposed closing loopholes in the state’s franchise tax and expanding the sales tax to create a more equitable tax system. Maybe she’ll get some folks to listen to her during her primary campaign against Gov. Perry, with the school funding deadline approaching.

The Supreme Court has ordered the Legislature to act or funds for the 2006-2007 school year will be cut off. Nonetheless, it’s hard to be optimistic when the Legislature has had such a poor record of stepping up to the challenge heretofore.

While the Supreme Court did not tell lawmakers what to do, it did issue a warning that the state is getting dangerously close to not providing students an adequate education. If lawmakers simply do the minimum and raise the current tax rate cap, the court challenges will not be over.

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