From this Dallas Morning News Editorial (free online subscription required):

The GOP Challenge: Can Republicans govern Texas?

With school finance blowing up on the GOP leadership in Austin, you have to wonder if Texas Republicans will learn from history.
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, conservative Democrats like Govs. Allan Shivers and John Connally commonly fought with liberal party members. The feuds became so prominent that the disputes left room for the state’s infant GOP to quietly but steadily develop. By the start of the 1980s, the Texas GOP was on the rise while the Texas Democratic Party was on its decline.
We point this out because Texas Republicans now are at their own crossroads. They are skirmishing like Democrats of old.
The Legislature’s failure to come up with a fix for school funding wasn’t because Republicans and Democrats were brawling, although there were conflicts between the parties. The breakdown came because Republicans couldn’t agree with Republicans. The GOP controls the governorship, the House and the Senate. And that’s where the feuding has mostly taken place over the last month.
Now, some of the fight is about honest disagreements. But the real quarrel is about whether the Legislature should raise business taxes to put more money into Texas schools. Gov. Rick Perry hasn’t wanted to do that, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst fortunately is willing, and House Speaker Tom Craddick is somewhere in between.
Republicans need to recognize the state needs a new pool of funds to improve schools. And they need to come to that reality fast.
Since 2002, when Republicans took over all parts of the state’s government for the first time in 100-plus years, the Legislature has broken down into bitter fights over the state’s budget, congressional redistricting and, now, school funding. If Texas Republicans don’t fix this situation, then Texans will have a right to wonder if the GOP knows how to govern.
Republicans may want to check in with the state’s Democratic elders on this point, too. They know what it’s like for voters to take away their power.

In the meantime, I will not hold my breath waiting for the Texas legislature to begin considering such innovative approaches as are reviewed in this prior post.