TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on arguments before the Kansas Supreme Court on public school funding (all times local):
11:30 a.m.
Kansas Supreme Court justices who are skeptical that state lawmakers have sufficiently increased school funding this year are struggling with whether they have enough information to say exactly what’s adequate.
Four of the court’s seven members expressed doubts Tuesday about a new law approved this year that phases in a $548 million educating funding increase over five years. The court heard arguments from attorneys on whether the increase is adequate under the state constitution.
But skeptical Justice Dan Biles later suggested in questioning attorney Alan Rupe that the Supreme Court might have to order more fact-finding by a lower court about what funding would be adequate. Rupe represents four school districts suing the state.
Chief Justice Lawton Nuss also questioned whether the Supreme Court needs more information.
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9:35 a.m.
Three of the Kansas Supreme Court’s justices have expressed skepticism that a public school funding increase approved by lawmakers this year is adequate under the state constitution.
The seven-member court heard arguments Tuesday on the state’s plan to spend $548 million more, phased in over five years. The increase approved by lawmakers this spring and signed by Gov. Jeff Colyer was the second hike in two years. Many lawmakers see it as a sizable boost.
But Justice Dan Biles suggested from the bench that the increase still would leave Kansas five years behind in providing adequate funding to its schools. Justices Eric Rosen and Marla Luckert also were skeptical of the increase.
State solicitor general Toby Crouse said the hike gives the state a “fulsome funding system.”
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers are looking for hopeful hints from the state Supreme Court that they’ve increased education funding enough to satisfy the justices and head off any potential threat of a court order shuttering public schools.
But attorneys for four school districts suing the state were preparing to argue Tuesday that the plan lawmakers and Gov. Jeff Colyer settled on this spring, a $548 million increase phased in over five years, still falls as much as $1.5 billion short of providing a suitable education for every child. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a lawsuit filed by the districts in 2010, when this year’s high school graduates were fifth-graders.
The court ruled in October that the state’s current education funding of more than $4 billion a year isn’t sufficient under the Kansas Constitution, even with an increase approved last year. The school districts want the justices to declare that legislators are still short — and to order lawmakers to approve more spending by the end of June.
The justices have promised only to issue their next ruling by June 30. In past hearings, they’ve peppered attorneys for the state and the school districts with questions and have not been shy about expressing frustration with lawmakers.
“What we are interested in is having the Legislature live up to the court’s charge,” said Alan Rupe, the school districts’ lead attorney. “What the Legislature has come up with is a plan that falls way short.”
Colyer, who is Republican, and the GOP-controlled Legislature have worried that if the court isn’t satisfied, it will declare that the state cannot distribute its education dollars through an unconstitutional funding formula — effectively keeping schools closed until legislators approve a fix.
The court threatened to do just that in 2016 to get lawmakers to increase aid to poor school districts. But Rep. Fred Patton, a Topeka Republican and chairman of a special House committee on school funding, said he would be shocked if the court went that far this time.
“You cannot argue that we did not put in a substantial amount of money and school districts won’t benefit,” Patton said.
But the districts’ attorneys note that a study commission by legislators this year said improving schools could cost as much as $2 billion more a year, depending on the state’s ambitions for improving standardized test scores and graduation rates.
