After a 12-week trial, Texas district judge John Dietz has ruled that the state funding of public schools is unconstitutional due to a lack of fairly distributed funds.

The state has cut funding to schools while also expecting them to meet the increasing academic standards.

The judge’s decision was the correct one. Something has to give: either the state increases its funding for schools so they can meet the higher standards, or keep the funds as is and cut the standards.

However, this choice seems easy. The state of Texas must increase funding for schools or else risk appearing indifferent towards education.

Since Texas does not have an income tax, it relies on property taxes and a program called “Robin Hood” to fund the schools. The “Robin Hood” program requires richer schools to share their resources with poorer schools.

Texas can give more money to its public education by simply taking some money out of the Rainy Day Fund, which has about $8.1 billion, according to the New York Times.

State Attorney General Greg Abbott, a potential candidate for governor in 2014, disagrees with this position. Abbott believes that schools are mismanaging their sufficient funds.

However, the schools are not to blame; their state representatives are the ones mismanaging money and ignoring schools’ needs.

The state constitution requires schools to be run efficiently. If schools are not receiving enough money to match the required academic standards, then Texas education cannot be efficient.

This case will certainly be appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, according to National Public Radio. The problem with the appeal is that it could be years before this issue is addressed and resolved in court.

Schools and students do not have time to wait to see how their education is going to be affected. State legislators from both parties must work together to create a new way to fund public education.

Public education should always be a top priority for every state. It is the key to the future.

There are many leaders like Abbott who believe that they are actually doing a adequate job with public education funding, but in reality, they are just not doing enough.

If they were doing a “good job,” then there would not have been five major court decisions regarding school funding since 1984. For state leaders to accomplish a good job they will have to create a new way to fund schools that is not controversial.

Proper funding is needed in Texas public education. Without it, the state’s future seems to be very bleak.