Attor­ney Gen­er­al Ken Pax­ton Ensures Edu­ca­tion Account­abil­i­ty and Trans­paren­cy by Defend­ing State Author­i­ty to Issue Pub­lic School Per­for­mance Ratings

Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a unanimous victory from the Fifteenth Court of Appeals, upholding Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath’s legal authority to issue annual A to F performance ratings for Texas public schools.

“Despite state law requiring the annual issuance of A to F grades for public schools, rogue school districts have fought for years to hide their report cards,” said Attorney General Paxton. “This is a major victory for accountability and transparency in Texas’s educational system that will strengthen the ability of parents and students to ensure that public schools fulfill their responsibilities.” 

Performance ratings for public schools must be issued in an annual report according to the Texas Education Code. In 2023, however, external events prevented the issuance of those ratings before the yearly deadline, prompting a legal challenge by school districts that claimed Commissioner Morath had no authority to subsequently issue the ratings. A Travis County district court agreed and prevented the ratings from being released, ignoring the Commissioner’s statutory obligation to issue them. Now the Fifteenth Court of Appeals has vacated the wrongful injunction and dismissed the school districts’ lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction. 

In Chief Justice Scott Brister’s concurring opinion, he discouraged school districts and lower courts from continuing to use the judicial system to interfere with the accountability system enacted by the legislature. The opinion explained: “Failing schools require prompt action from state and local officials, from students and their families, and from voters. The 19-month delay occasioned by litigating these issues in court shows why the Legislature could reasonably declare that the Commissioner should be the final and ultimate arbiter of them. Every time a judicial resolution is sought, a final resolution will be delayed for a year or two.”

To read the Fifteenth Court of Appeals’ opinion, click here.

To read Justice Chief Justice Scott Brister’s concurring opinion, click here.