The Texas Attorney General concluded that
providing public funds to parochial schools through tuition
equalization grants under a religiously neutral program is not inherently unconstitutional under the Texas Constitution because although Texas» second Blaine Amendment (Article VII, Section 5) «prohibits
aid to sects -LSB-,]» «not all denominational institutions are sectarian in the constitutional sense.»
1973 — A complete tax base
equalization program is enacted that
provides a much higher appropriation of
equalization aid to relieve local property taxes; discontinues general flat
aids; institutes a power equalizing program
providing for «negative
aids»; and separates the shared cost into primary and secondary levels with a two - level system of state
aid in which school costs which exceed the statutory ceiling of aidable costs are supported at a lower level of state
aid to serve as a disincentive to high levels of spending.