Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday he will call a special session of the Legislature to address school funding, a move many had expected as lawmakers face a June 30 deadline to enact a constitutional funding system. Brownback focused on the $38 million estimate of what is needed to equalize funding multiple times, even while trying to explain equalization for those who may not always follow it closely.
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He said he doesn’t feel safe as a teacher in Kansas anymore.
Kansas lawmakers will meet a week ahead of their special session to discuss the prospect of passing a constitutional amendment to restrict the Kansas Supreme Court from closing schools in the future.
John Robb, an attorney representing four school districts that have sued the state, said in an email that he was encouraged that Brownback is talking about “a legitimate fix”.
Brownback said he doesn’t think any potential additional cuts to Medicaid would endanger federal reauthorization of KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program.
Or will the lawmakers cobble together different kinds of poison-pill bills or even a proposed constitutional amendment, all created to avoid obeying the court’s ruling?
The Supreme Court ruled in May that a portion of the state’s school funding formula was not equitable and therefore it remained unconstitutional.
“We’re just in a holding pattern and going through and making contingency plans for every different aspect”, said Corbin Witt, Superintendent with Dollars 475. She says, lawmakers claim the state supreme court is nit picking over one percent in school funding, but actually in Kansas, trickle down economics ran off the tracks. To close a $1.3 billion gap for the fiscal year beginning next month, lawmakers in Oklahoma-which has been hit hard by lower oil prices-trimmed state spending by 5%, including $33 million in cuts for textbooks and almost $40 million from an activities fund that supports preschool, lunch and art programs.
After the governor and legislature made another round of cuts to state aid for districts, the high court again ruled in February that the finance formula was inequitable. The court rejected some of the changes, saying legislators still weren’t complying with their duty under the state constitution to fund schools so that all children receive a suitable education, whether they live in rich areas or poor ones.
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Legislators adjourned their annual session last week. What they’d like to see now is some concrete action to make sure Kansas schools are able to open in the fall. Several GOP lawmakers endorsed the idea, and Republican Gov. Sam Brownback is sympathetic. The Kansas Supreme Court has been reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court more times in the last eight years than any other state Supreme Court.
