Editor’s note: The Permian Press paid for and reviewed the publicly available court documents in case D-1-GN-26-006002 for this article.

What happened: About a month after Midland ISD filed suit against the state over its Robin Hood recapture system, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice James Blacklock assigned a special three-judge court to hear the case. A majority of the three judges will decide MISD’s constitutional challenge to Texas’ school finance system.

Catch up quick: MISD’s lawsuit argues that changes the Texas Legislature made to school finance beginning in 2019 have left local school boards without meaningful control over the property taxes they collect. Under the state’s recapture system, or Robin Hood, property-wealthy school districts send a portion of their locally collected property tax revenue to the state for redistribution through the school finance system.

MISD said it will send roughly $85 million to the state through recapture for the 2025-26 school year, and estimates a $44 million payment for the 2026-27 school year. MISD estimates it will have paid over $1 billion back to the state since the 2013-14 school year.

Midland’s top stories. One quick email. Free, every Friday.
Get Midland Wrapped, our free weekly email for busy Midland residents. Each Friday, we break down the week’s most important local stories — what happened, why it matters, and what to watch next — so you can stay informed without the noise.

Why it matters: Even if MISD ultimately prevails, Midland attorney Keith Stretcher, speaking on KWEL’s Morning Show on Aug. 20, said the issue would then move to the Texas Legislature, where lawmakers would have to determine how to replace the money currently collected through recapture.

Stretcher said the state currently collects approximately $2.3 billion a year from 192 school districts subject to recapture. Replacing that money, and deciding who pays instead, would ultimately be a question for state lawmakers.

The big picture: Under a law enacted in 2015, when the state is sued in a case challenging the finances or operations of Texas’ public school system, the attorney general may ask the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court to convene a special three-judge district court. State law also sets rules for selecting the three judges, rather than allowing the chief justice to simply choose any three.

Stretcher told The Permian Press that the three judges will hear the case together and that their decision need not be unanimous. Two of the three judges can form a majority.

Once the three-judge court issues its ruling, any appeal goes directly to the Texas Supreme Court, bypassing the Austin-based Third Court of Appeals that would ordinarily hear an appeal from a Travis County district court. Stretcher said this process could allow for a faster resolution to the case.

Stretcher called having three judges rather than one a “good procedural move” for MISD because it gives the district a broader opportunity to build the factual and legal record that would eventually go before the Texas Supreme Court.

Go deeper: Who are the three judges?

  • The Hon. Aurora Martinez Jones, a Democrat, has presided over the 126th District Court in Travis County since 2021. Her court will host the proceedings.
  • The Hon. Alfonso Charles, a Republican, has served as judge of the 124th District Court in East Texas’ Gregg County since 2009.
  • The Hon. Emily Miskel, a Republican, has served as a justice on the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas since 2022.

What’s next: Hearings scheduled for Aug. 18 and Aug. 25 were canceled. As of Sept. 1, no new hearing date had been set, the state had not formally responded to MISD’s lawsuit, and no other school districts had joined the case.