AUSTIN - A bid by a property-wealthy school district to escape Texas' share-the-wealth school finance system was turned back Friday by a state judge who said the system is working well.

State District Judge Scott McCown ruled that the Miami school district must continue to surrender about half its operating revenues under the funding law.

A spokesman for the Panhandle district said the decision probably will be appealed.

Miami is one of 86 high-property-wealth school districts that must share their local property taxes with other districts. This year, those districts gave up about $365 million.

"The equity question [in Texas schools] has been decided," Judge McCown wrote in his judgment. "Our state has advanced. We will not go back."

The judge said there is no doubt that the share-the-wealth law has improved education in the poorest school districts in the state.

"We are now seeing the results," he said. "The court takes note of the most recent Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. Student performance was the best ever. Improvement was both significant and across the board."

Judge McCown noted that 1998 TAAS results released Thursday by the Texas Education Agency showed that 58 percent of low-income students passed the exam. Four years ago, only 33 percent passed.

"Of special interest to this court is that Edgewood ISD had nine low-performing schools in 1993 and none in 1998," he said, referring to the lead plaintiff in the state's long-running school finance case.

That lawsuit, filed in 1984, forced the Legislature to overhaul the school finance system in 1993. The system was upheld by the Texas Supreme Court two years later.

The Miami school district filed suit last year, saying that it was exempt from the share-the-wealth law because it was rated an " exemplary" district by the state. The rating was earned through high student test scores and a low dropout rate.

The suit argued that state law frees exemplary districts from all state requirements except those specifically listed in the law. Because the law does not list the current spending limits for high-wealth districts, Miami contended that it was not bound to share its property tax revenues.

A trial on the lawsuit was held in Judge McCown's court in March.

In issuing his judgment Friday, the judge said Miami was trying to create a "loophole" in the law that would undermine funding equity in the public schools.

"The Legislature did not intend to create a system in which a property- rich district would get millions more as a windfall for achievement, while a property-poor district for the same achievement would get nothing," the judge said.

Mr. McCown said high-wealth districts already have too many financial advantages.

"The judicial branch of government has stretched about as far as it can stretch," he said. "Adding this to the tremendous financial advantages of the property-rich districts would be constitutionally intolerable."

Miami Superintendent Danny Cochran said his 200-pupil district is giving up nearly a million dollars a year in property taxes, about half of its operating budget.

Much of the property wealth in the Roberts County school district is from oil and gas wells in the area.

"We think the judge is wrong in his interpretation of the law,"

Mr. Cochran said. Mr. Cochran said the district is looking at a higher tax rate next year because of the revenue it is being forced to share.

"It seems unfair that our taxpayers should pay a higher tax rate than other districts simply because we have more dollars of property value," he said.

A spokesman for low-property wealth districts applauded the judge' s decision.

"The question of wealth equalization is not a question of performance [of school districts], but of equal access to funds for all districts, " said Craig Foster of the Equity Center.

Judge McCown also offered a suggestion to Miami school officials if they believe the don't have enough funds to educate their students.

Miami should "join with others to seek additional resources for the education of all the children of the state from our Legislature, rather than move alone to seek money for itself . . . by advancing arguments for loopholes to equity," he said.

The million dollars in property-tax revenue from Miami was held in a special account while the case was argued. On Friday, the judge directed that it be sent to the state treasury for distribution to schools.

Earlier this month, a group of mostly poor, rural school districts went to court to reopen the school finance case, arguing that property- wealthy districts have been allowed to siphon off millions of dollars from the finance system.

In a petition filed with Judge McCown, the 126 low-wealth districts asserted that their students have been deprived because of unfair funding advantages for high-wealth districts.

No hearing has been set on the lawsuit.

© 1998 The Dallas Morning News All Rights Reserved Terrence Stutz / Austin Bureau of The Dallas Morning 05-23-1998. ©1998 The Dallas Morning News