Texas

AMENDMENT LANGUAGE

State Constitutional Provision

Tex. Const. art. 1, § 7: "No money shall be appropriated, or drawn from the Treasury for the benefit of any sect, or religious society, theological or religious seminary; nor shall property belonging to the State be appropriated for any such purposes."

Tex. Const. art. VII, § 5(c): “The available school fund shall be applied annually to the support of the public free schools. Except as provided by this section, the legislature may not enact a law appropriating any part of the permanent school fund or available school fund to any other purpose. The permanent school fund and the available school fund may not be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school. The available school fund shall be distributed to the several counties according to their scholastic population and applied in the manner provided by law.”

RELEVANT CASES

State Courts

Edgewood Independent School District v. Meno, 917 S.W.2d 717 (Tex. 1995) (The claims of plaintiff-interveners alleging that the present system of public education denies them “a constitutionally suitable and efficient education” and a constitutional right to select the schools of their choice and received tuition reimbursement from the state were nonjusticiable because “the courts of the State of Texas have no authority to order a hybrid voucher system.”).

McIntyre v. Hoblinski, 333 S.W.2d 697 (Tex. 1960) (Plaintiff-taxpayers alleging that public school is operated as a parochial school and seeking injunctive relief against various government officials must first exhaust administrative remedies before resorting to the courts).

Adkins v. Heard, 163 S.W. 127 (Tex. 1914) (Taxpayers alleged school was being conducted in a sectarian manner but claim dismissed for lack of jurisdiction).

Church v. Bullock, 109 S.W. 115 (Tex. 1908) (The purpose of Art. 1, Sec. 7 is to prohibit the use of public funds to support a particular denomination but the moral education of children through readings from the Bible, repeating the Lord’s prayer, and singing hymns is nonsectarian).

Nance v. Johnson, 19 S.W. 559 (Tex. 1892) (Plaintiffs are not entitled seek to enjoin the payment of a teaching contract to a teacher who allegedly ran a sectarian school using public money until they have exhausted the administrative remedies available to them by law).

REPEAL EFFORTS

See the Heritage Foundation website for a list of state contacts.