“In sum, to the extent that the Texas system of school financing results in unequal expenditures between children who happen to reside in different districts, we cannot say that such disparities are the product of a system that is so irrational as to be invidiously discriminatory.”

—Justice Lewis Powell

The 5-4 United States Supreme Court decision in San Antonio ISD v. Rodriguez (1973) ruled no constitutional right to an equal education, held no violation of rights in Texas’ school system, and reserved jurisdiction and management of Texas’ public school finance system to the state.

On July 10, 1968, Demitrio Rodriguez and a group of San Antonio parents filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of minority students from low-income school districts. Their attorney, Arthur Gochman, denounced Texas’ inequitable public school finance system, and showed that the Edgewood district, with a predominantly Mexican-American population, and one of the highest tax rates in the Bexar Country, received $37 per pupil, while the more affluent and Anglo students in Alamo Heights got $413 per pupil.

A three-judge federal district court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs finding Texas’ public school finance system discriminatory based on wealth. They argued this inequity was unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Additionally, they ruled that education is a “fundamental” right. The State of Texas appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On March 21, 1973, Justice Powell delivered the Supreme Court decision stating that the “Equal Protection Clause does not require absolute equality of precisely equal advantages”. Furthermore, the court ruled that the State of Texas had not “deprived” any student access to education, an entity not protected by the 14th Amendment. They also found no occurring discrimination on the basis of wealth, and retained management of school funding methods to the state and its representatives.

In 1984, Rodriguez v. San Antonio ISD (1973) led to another U.S. Supreme Court landmark case: Edgewood Independent School District v. Kirby (1992), where Demitrio Rodriguez, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), and parent associations challenged Texas’ school funding system again. In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and held Texas’ school financing system unconstitutional.