| 5/23/1984: Landmark public education suit filed |
| On this day in 1984, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) filed a landmark suit against Texas education commissioner William Kirby in Travis County. In Edgewood ISD v. Kirby, filed on behalf of the Edgewood Independent School District, MALDEF charged that the state’s methods of funding public education violated at least four principles of the state constitution, which obligate the state legislature to provide an efficient and free public school system. Initially, eight school districts and twenty-one parents were represented in the suit; eventually, sixty-seven other school districts and many other parents and students joined the original plaintiffs. The plaintiffs in Edgewood contested the state’s reliance on local property taxes to finance public education on the grounds that property values vary greatly from district to district, thus creating inequality in education funds. The case took years to work its way through the courts, but in 1990 the Texas Supreme Court delivered a unanimous decision siding with the plaintiffs. In 1993, after several earlier attempts were declared unconstitutional, the legislature passed a school finance reform plan comprising several options for equalizing funding. In 1995 the Texas Supreme Court found the plan constitutional but ruled that the legislature still needed to work on equalizing and improving school facilities throughout the state.See also:Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational FundEducationGovernmentCivil RightsEdgewood ISD v. Kirby |
| 5/23/1871: State establishes agency to encourage immigration |
| On this day in 1871, the Texas legislature directed the governor to appoint a superintendent with a four-year term to administer the Texas Bureau of Immigration, with “the purpose of promoting and protecting immigration” into the state. The superintendent was empowered to use tax revenues to write material describing Texas as a destination for the immigrant and to appoint paid agents and volunteer lecturers to travel to southern and northern states as well as to Europe, to encourage potential immigrants to seek land in Texas. Gustav Loeffler served as the first superintendent until 1874, when Governor Richard Coke appointed Jerome Bonaparte Robertson to that position. Fiscal retrenchment incorporated in the Constitution of 1876 brought an end to the bureau, as the constitution included a specific prohibition against using state funds “for any purpose of bringing immigrants to the State.” While the bureau existed, its superintendents negotiated with transportation companies to help bring immigrants into the state and published such enticement literature as the pamphlet “Texas, the Home for the Emigrant, From Everywhere.”See also:Texas Bureau of ImmigrationCoke, RichardRobertson, Jerome BonaparteEmigrants’ Guides To Texas |
| 5/23/1934: Murderers and bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde gunned down in Louisiana |
| On this day in 1934, celebrated Depression-era Texas outlaws Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were killed in a roadside ambush arranged by Texas Ranger Frank Hamer outside of Gibsland, Louisiana. Riddled by some 167 bullets, the bodies were taken to Arcadia and later put on public display in Dallas before being buried in their respective family burial plots.See also:Barrow, Clyde ChesnutParker, BonnieHamer, Francis AugustusTexas Rangers |