Appeals court: TEA can release A-F school ratings

By Editor | April 9, 2025

CAPITAL HIGHLIGHTS

A judge with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the Texas Education Agency can release its 2023 A-F school accountability ratings, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The ruling overturned a district judge’s injunction after more than 120 school districts sued to stop TEA from releasing the ratings. Those districts argued that the agency did not provide enough advance notice about changes to the formula used to calculate the rating.
The A-F ratings assigned to each district and campus are based on standardized test performance, though the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the process. The appeals court ruled that TEA Commissioner Mike Morath had the authority to postpone their issuance or to change the standards after the 2022-2023 school year was over.
“We agree that after a race is over not everyone can be declared the winner,” the court’s opinion read. “But it is not our role as judges to decide whether the Commissioner’s decisions were necessary or fair. The Districts’ burden … was to show the Commissioner acted ‘without legal authority,’ not that he should have exercised his discretion another way.”
Dueling property tax proposals compared
The Texas House and Senate have agreed to spend at least $6 billion to cut property taxes but are taking different approaches, The Texas Tribune reported. The most significant difference that must be reconciled is whether businesses or homeowners get the larger tax break.
The House measure gives more relief to businesses. It would exempt up to $250,000 of business inventory from all property taxes, up from $2,500. House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, backs the bill.
“Raising the personal property tax exemption … would be a monumental win for Texas businesses, freeing up funds for business owners to reinvest in the growth of their companies on top of the potential savings provided by buying down property tax rates for all property owners statewide,” Burrows said in February.
The Senate version focuses on bigger tax breaks for homeowners, largely by raising the homestead exemption once again, this time from $100,000 to $140,000.
“I have made increasing the homestead exemption my mission because it is the best way to deliver meaningful property tax reductions for homeowners,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Senate, said in February. That bill passed unanimously in February. It contains an increase in personal property tax exemption from $2,500 to $25,000 – much lower than the House version.
Bill enacts new regulations on large electricity users
A bill passed unanimously in the Senate and now pending in the House would enact new regulations on data centers and other major electricity users, the Chronicle reported.
The bill’s primary goal is to prevent a repeat of the deadly outages in February 2021 during Winter Storm Uri. It directs state regulators to figure out how to protect everyday residents and small businesses from huge rate hikes during weather emergencies, which is what happened to some users in 2021.
The growth of artificial intelligence is one factor in the boom in power demand. For example, Open AI’s first Stargate project being built in Abilene would require 1.2 gigawatts of electricity – enough to power a million homes for a year.
“It’s not an oil boom. It’s an economic boom led by big technology and their corresponding need for big electricity,” state Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, said on the Senate floor.