Can the Texas education commissioner move a school district to a different county education district?

Texas AG Opinion DM-0065: Reassigning a School District Among County Education Districts

Plain-English summary

A state senator asked whether the commissioner of education could move the Mason Independent School District into a different county education district than the one the Education Code assigned it to, or create a new county education district just to hold Mason ISD. County education districts were the 1991 school-finance entities that grouped school districts together. Section 20.941 of the Education Code listed which districts made up each county education district, generally tracking the county a district was listed under in the 1990-1991 Texas School Directory, and it placed Mason ISD in a group with San Saba and Llano. The Attorney General answered no to both questions.

On creating a new county education district, the opinion found nothing in the Education Code or elsewhere that let the commissioner add county education districts beyond those section 20.941 spelled out.

On reassignment, the opinion turned to section 20.949, the only provision allowing the commissioner to move a district. That section let a school district request reassignment only if it was "assigned under Section 20.941 . . . to a county other than the county where the school district's administrative offices are located," and the commissioner had to grant the request unless it would have certain effects on taxable property value per weighted student. The opinion read "assigned under section 20.941" to mean the county a district was listed under in the 1990-1991 Texas School Directory. The directory assigned Mason ISD to Mason County, and Mason ISD's administrative offices were in Mason, Mason County. So Mason ISD was not a district assigned to a county different from where its offices sit. It therefore could not request reassignment, and the commissioner had no authority to grant one.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1991. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. County education districts were a short-lived school-finance mechanism, and the Texas Supreme Court later held the related funding scheme unconstitutional, so county education districts no longer exist; the Education Code was also recodified in 1995. Verify current law before relying on anything here.

Common questions

Could the education commissioner create a brand-new county education district?
Under this 1991 opinion, no. The opinion found no statute authorizing the commissioner to add county education districts beyond those listed in Education Code section 20.941.

Could the commissioner move Mason ISD to a different county education district?
No. The only reassignment power (section 20.949) applied when a district was assigned to a county other than where its administrative offices were located. Mason ISD was assigned to Mason County, where its offices were, so it did not qualify.

How was a district "assigned" to a county education district?
By section 20.941, which composed each county education district from the districts listed under a county (or group of counties) in the 1990-1991 Texas School Directory. Mason ISD was listed under Mason County, grouped with San Saba and Llano.

When could a district get reassigned under section 20.949?
Only when it was assigned to a county different from where its administrative offices sat. In that case the commissioner had to grant a reassignment request unless it would have a specified effect on taxable property value per weighted student.

Background and statutory framework

Education Code section 20.941, added in 1991 by Senate Bill 351 (Acts 1991, 72d Leg., ch. 20, § 2) and amended the same session by House Bill 2885 (Acts 1991, 72d Leg., ch. 391, §§ 7, 11), composed each county education district from the school districts listed under a county or group of counties in the 1990-1991 Texas School Directory. House Bill 2885 also added section 20.949, which let a district assigned to a county other than where its administrative offices were located request reassignment, with the commissioner required to grant it unless the reassignment would affect taxable property value per weighted student in average daily attendance in a specified way. As first enacted in Senate Bill 351, section 20.941 had assigned districts to the counties of their administrative offices, but House Bill 2885 changed that to the directory-listing method.

Citations

Statutory provisions:

• Education Code § 20.941 (composition of county education districts by the 1990-1991 Texas School Directory)
• Education Code § 20.949 (limited reassignment when a district is assigned to a county other than where its offices are located)

Session laws referenced: Senate Bill 351, Acts 1991, 72d Leg., ch. 20, § 2; House Bill 2885, Acts 1991, 72d Leg., ch. 391, §§ 7, 11.

Source

• Landing page: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/dan-morales/dm-0065
• Original PDF: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1991/dm0065.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain — the linked PDF is authoritative.

Office of the Attorney General
State of Texas

DAN MORALES
Attorney General

December 9, 1991

Honorable Bill Sims
Chairman
Natural Resources Committee
Texas State Senate
Capitol Building, Room 421
Austin, Texas 78711-2068

Opinion No. DM-65

Re: Whether the commissioner of education has the authority to create a new county education district or to reassign a school district to another county education district (RQ-225)

Dear Senator Sims:

You ask whether the commissioner of education has authority to assign the Mason Independent School District (hereinafter "Mason I.S.D.") to a different county education district than that to which it is assigned under the Education Code, or to create a new county education district to which to assign Mason I.S.D. Section 20.941 of the Education Code provides, in pertinent part:

(a) Each school district in this state is included in a county education district. A county education district is composed of all school districts that are assigned to a single county in the 1990-1991 Texas School Directory published by the Central Education Agency, except as provided by Subsection (b) of this section.

(b) The school districts that are assigned to a county in each of the following groups of counties in the 1990-1991 Texas School Directory published by the Central Education Agency constitute a county education district:

. . . .

(15) Mason, San Saba, and Llano [.]

We find no provisions in the Education Code or elsewhere that authorize the commissioner of education to create new county education districts in addition to those provided for in section 20.941. Section 20.949, however, provides for the commissioner's "reassigning" school districts, in certain limited circumstances, to other county education districts than those to which they are assigned under section 20.941.[1] Subsection (a) of section 20.949 provides:

(a) If a school district is assigned under Section 20.941 of this code to a county other than the county where the school district's administrative offices are located, the school district may submit a request to the commissioner of education for reassignment to the county in which the school district's administrative offices are located.

Subsection (b) of section 20.949 provides that the commissioner of education shall grant such a request for reassignment if the reassignment does not have specified consequences for the taxable value of property "per weighted student in average daily attendance" in the county education district to or from which the requesting school district would be reassigned.

In section 20.949(a), the reference to "assignment" of a school district "under section 20.941" clearly means the "assignments" of school districts to counties "in the 1990-1991 Texas School Directory," as adopted by the latter section's provisions for purposes of county education districts' composition. See House Comm. on Public Educ., Bill Analysis, H.B. 2885, 72d Leg. (1991) (describing section 20.941, as amended, as providing "that a school district is assigned to the county it is listed under in the 1990-1991 Texas School Directory").[2] The 1990-1991 Texas School Directory "assigns" Mason I.S.D. to Mason County. See 1990-1991 Texas School Directory, at 89. Also, we understand that the administrative offices of Mason I.S.D. are located in Mason, Texas, in Mason County. See id. Thus, Mason I.S.D. is not a district which, in the language of section 20.949(a), "is assigned under section 20.941 . . . to a county other than the county where the school district's administrative offices are located." Consequently, Mason I.S.D. is not authorized under section 20.949 to request reassignment to another county education district nor is the commissioner of education authorized by that section to grant such a request.

SUMMARY

The commissioner of education is not authorized to create, for inclusion of the Mason Independent School District, a new county education district in addition to those provided for in section 20.941 of the Education Code. Nor is the commissioner authorized under section 20.949 of the code to reassign Mason Independent School District to a different county education district from that to which the district is assigned under section 20.941.

Very truly yours,

DAN MORALES
Attorney General of Texas

WILL PRYOR
First Assistant Attorney General

MARY KELLER
Deputy Assistant Attorney General

JUDGE ZOLLIE STEAKLEY (Ret.)
Special Assistant Attorney General

RENEA HICKS
Special Assistant Attorney General

MADELEINE B. JOHNSON
Chair, Opinion Committee

Prepared by William Walker
Assistant Attorney General

[1] Section 20.941 was added in 1991 by Senate Bill 351. Acts 1991, 72d Leg., ch. 20, § 2, at 406. At the same session, House Bill 2885 amended the provisions of section 20.941 to read as they are set out above, and also added new section 20.949. Acts 1991, 72d Leg., ch. 391, §§ 7, 11, at 1477, 1479.

[2] Section 20.941 as first adopted as part of Senate Bill 351, and prior to its amendment to its present form by House Bill 2885, provided that school districts were assigned to the counties where their administrative offices were located.