That’s right, it was a done deal the minute it was filed in Judge John Dietz’s court. You’ll not find a single person involved that says otherwise. That is why the good judge announced before closing arguments that he would have a bench ruling later in the day. Just who is Judge John Dietz? Well, he is, in the words of the Travis County Democratic Party, The Legendary Judge Dietz:

To help us assess this position, we turned to Judge John Dietz, a legendary courthouse figure who currently sits on the 250th District Civil Court. (The 250th and the 353rd share a central docket, so he’s particularly informed on this topic.) Dietz’s knowledge of court history in Travis County runs deep, and so does his commitment to the Democratic Party.

QUESTION: Why is it important to elect Democratic judges?

DIETZ:At one point this county was huddled up in a sea of Republicanism, but it’s a little bit different these days. We’ve had a very long, almost unbroken tradition of electing Democratic judges. And yes, that’s a good thing. Travis County courts are uniquely situated, because we’re in the Capital, that we get cases that are panoramic in scope. On the Travis County bench, you have the opportunity to get things that are weighty and panoramic.

So, the plaintiffs that have demonstrated an inability to teach our kids went and found them a friendly judge and he did their bidding, declaring from the bench, without listening to all of the trial, that we need to increase the per child funding about $2,000. Exactly what this means no one seems to know, so we’ll have to wait until he puts his “weighty and panoramic” views on paper. For now, we have this:

So if that’s the promise of education, what is the problem in education? First, I would point out that we are not now producing college- and career-ready students in the opinion of many of our political and business leaders. I would further point out that the U.S. was ranked 17th in the latest authoritative global survey of education, ranking behind Finland, South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Canada.

I would point out that in the U.S., with our 17th-position rank, Texas is in the bottom half of the 50 states.

Finally, I would point out the simple truth: We are in competition with 195 other nations and their economies. If I ask the 20 million Texans who are not in school right now whether they agree that we should have more rigorous and challenging standards for our education systems, what would their answer be? I believe a vast majority of Texas would say “Yes” and that for our students to successfully compete in the future, we must have tougher, higher standards now.

Not a single part of his musings are within the realm of the judiciary – they are policy questions for citizen legislators to decide. It is a sad day when judges step outside their boundaries and start dictating policy to the people of Texas. Fortunately, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and his team will appeal this monstrosity of a ruling and, hopefully, saner judges, i.e., those that aren’t ruled by their personal desires to be “weighty and panoramic” will overturn this ruling and allow citizen legislators to determine the future path of public education finance. As they should.