By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN & JIM MCLEAN

Lawmakers may not know for months whether a deal to pump half a billion dollars into schools goes far enough to end seven years of court battles over whether the state shortchanges Kansas children.

If it falls short, the Kansas Supreme Court could call them back to Topeka this summer with yet another ultimatum to send even more money to local districts.

The deal to increase public education funding squeaked through with the bare minimum of votes amid desperate Statehouse gamesmanship over the weekend.

It will boost state aid to schools over the next five years, eventually adding more than half a billion dollars in annual funding.

In coming weeks, state lawyers will prepare briefs to the Kansas Supreme Court arguing this money is enough. Lawmakers, meanwhile, will wrangle over collecting online sales taxes to help cover the cost.

“We must keep our schools open,” Gov. Jeff Colyer told reporters at 12:30 a.m. Sunday after a 16-hour legislative day. “We must have a good response to the Supreme Court. … I believe that this bill — while it’s had a robust debate — has actually achieved those things.”

The night included a high-stakes game of legislative chicken between the House and conservatives in the Senate — all amid a backdrop of hundreds of teachers clad in red shirts who packed the galleries and hallways in a show of support for education funding.

“I look at this as an investment in our future,” said Karen Wilkerson, who teaches in the southwest Kansas town of Ulysses. “You invest in assets all the time for your business.”

Senate leaders wanted to add half as much money to schools as the House did. They fought the House’s plan to the bitter end, filibustering all the way through a midnight deadline that would kill the school finance bill and every single other piece of unfinished business from the 2018 legislative session.

“I could go on and on,” Republican Sen. Rick Wilborn said as he decried government spending with four minutes remaining on the clock. “As a matter of fact, I think I will.”

Just seconds before midnight, frustrated House members on the other side of the building took a procedural vote to keep the clock from running out on the session. But because of how that extraordinary action toyed with legislative rules, it will complicate things in the days ahead. It gives Colyer the ability to veto bills without risk of legislative override.

“We were 90 seconds from melting down the entire session,” House Democratic leader Jim Ward said. “The Senate is a very dysfunctional body right now.”

Earlier in the day, the school finance bill had seemed on an easier path to victory. Colyer had endorsed it and Attorney General Derek Schmidt had admonished lawmakers to finish fast amid a looming court deadline.

“Each day of delay,” he wrote to them, “further damages the State’s ability to prepare a proper defense.”

House Speaker Ron Ryckman and Senate Republican leader Jim Denning held closed-door talks. The House passed a compromise bill making minor concessions to the Senate’s own school funding plan. Proponents crossed their fingers as the bill headed to the Senate.

“I’m holding my breath,” said Rep. Melissa Rooker, who helped craft the legislation, “and hoping they live up to their end of the bargain.”

But optimism faded when the Senate launched into a tax debate that led to hours upon hours of discussion on amendments and parliamentary procedure.

Even after winning enough votes for that bill — which contained tax breaks that could cost the state treasury nearly $500 million over five years — Senate leaders stalled.

“I’m here standing for all my constituents,” Senate President Susan Wagle said. “My teachers, my administrators, my aircraft workers, my CPAs, my health care workers, my hotel workers, the maids. Everybody. I’m here for my whole district. I’m just not here for all the phone calls that have come in today from the teachers.”

In October, the Kansas Supreme Court found the state wasn’t meeting its obligation to suitably fund education. It pointed, in part, to the quarter of public school students lagging behind grade level in math and reading.

Dozens of school boards have helped foot legal bills for the seven-year lawsuit. Two of the state’s largest, highest-poverty districts are among its formal plaintiffs — Wichita and Kansas City, Kansas.

Their lawyers have argued the state should put at least $600 million into schools. Lawmakers opted to add less. They also phased the money over five years. That means they could face further challenges that inflation over that period will undermine the plan’s effect.

Meanwhile, groups such as the Kansas Chamber that think the courts have long overstepped their authority by meddling in school funding levels, will likely continue lobbying for a constitutional amendment to change that.

A proposal to do so passed the House judiciary committee earlier in the week.

House Democrat Pam Curtis, a member of that committee, said if lawmakers face another court order to increase school funding this summer, they could return to Topeka more eager to alter the constitution.

“I certainly wouldn’t want to see something like that give that momentum,” she said. “Because I don’t think then it’s considered in a very thoughtful manner.”

See how the House and Senate voted on the school finance bill.

Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ. 

Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks. 

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the Kansas Legislature’s debate on increasing school funding to meet a court mandate (all times local):

12:26 a.m. Sunday

Kansas legislators have given their final approval to an increase in spending on the state’s public schools amid intense pressure to respond to a court mandate.

The Senate approved a bill early Sunday to phase in a $534 million increase in education funding over five years. The vote was 21-19.

The House approved the bill on a 63-56 vote. The measure goes to Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer, who has already endorsed it publicly.

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in October that the state’s current education funding of more than $4 billion a year isn’t sufficient. Many Democrats said the plan will not satisfy the court.

Senate GOP leaders backed a plan to phase in a $274 million increase. They said the bigger plan will eventually force a tax increase.

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10:40 p.m.

The Kansas Senate is debating a proposal to increase spending on public schools in hopes of meeting a state Supreme Court mandate.

Senators were moving toward a final vote late Saturday or early Sunday on a bill that would phase in a $534 million education funding increase over five years.

But majority Republicans were split over the measure and some of them were harshly criticizing the bill.

The measure is similar to a plan the House passed earlier in the week, and it approved the new plan Saturday on a 63-56 vote. Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer endorsed it as well.

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in October that the state’s current funding of more than $4 billion a year is insufficient.

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8:12 p.m.

The Kansas Legislature’s work on a plan for increasing school funding has stalled with tempers rising among Republicans.

The state Senate had not acted by Saturday evening on a bill that would phase in a $534 million increase in education funding over five years. The House passed it earlier Saturday on a 63-56 vote.

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in October that the state’s current funding of more than $4 billion a year is insufficient.

Senators were having a lengthy debate over another bill rewriting income tax laws to head off the possibility that changes in federal tax laws last year might cause some Kansas residents to pay more state taxes.

They suspended the debate to pass a resolution allowing lawmakers to meet past Saturday. But the move angered some Republicans.

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6:50 p.m.

Dozens of teachers have converged on the Kansas Statehouse to lobby for passage of a plan to increase spending on public schools.

The Kansas National Education Association organized lobbying Saturday evening in favor of a bill that would phase in a $534 million increase in education funding over five years. It is the state’s largest teachers’ union.

The House passed the bill Saturday on a 63-56 vote, but the Senate had yet to debate it. Supporters feared senators might not take it up.

Senate GOP leaders were critical of the plan.

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in October that the state’s current funding of more than $4 billion a year is insufficient.

KNEA lobbyist Mark Desetti said the plan is probably the best that legislators can pass.

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1:35 p.m.

The Kansas House has approved an education funding proposal that’s designed to break an impasse among Republican lawmakers over boosting spending on public schools.

The vote Saturday was 63-56. The bill would phase in a $534 million increase in education funding over five years and is similar to a plan approved by the House earlier this week.

The bill goes next to the Senate for an up-or-down vote that could send it to Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer. He has endorsed the proposal.

The Senate previously approved a plan to phase in a $274 million funding increase over five years.

Lawmakers are considering an education funding increase in response to a state Supreme Court ruling in October that the state’s current funding of more than $4 billion a year is insufficient.

—————

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Big differences among Republican lawmakers over how much to increase spending on Kansas’ public schools forced them to return Saturday to the Statehouse under increasing pressure to pass a plan that could satisfy a court mandate on education funding.

Some legislators and GOP Gov. Jeff Colyer have worried that a frustrated state Supreme Court would take the unprecedented step of preventing the state from distributing dollars through a flawed education funding system — effectively closing schools statewide.

House and Senate negotiators had several rounds of talks Friday afternoon and evening to resolve the differences between their rival education funding plans. But the talks broke off abruptly Friday night when it became clear that the negotiators weren’t getting closer to agreeing on the core issue of how much to spend.

The House plan would phase in a roughly $520 million increase in education funding over five years. The Senate’s figure is $274 million.

“Folks are talking, and we’re not getting much closer,” House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., a Kansas City-area Republican, said Friday night. “We’re not making progress, at least not at this point.”

The Supreme Court gave Attorney General Derek Schmidt until April 30 to report on how the GOP-controlled Legislature responded to an education funding ruling last fall. Schmidt sent a letter Friday to legislative leaders in both parties, expressing “profound concern” that no school funding bill has passed.

The court declared in October that the state’s current funding of more than $4 billion a year is insufficient for lawmakers to fulfill their duty under the Kansas Constitution to finance a suitable education for every child.

Colyer and lawmakers want to avoid a tax increase, and Senate GOP leaders have excoriated the House’s plan as likely to force one within two years. Democrats do not think the House plan or the Senate plan would satisfy the court.

The Legislature had been scheduled to start its annual 2½-week spring break Saturday, then return to the Statehouse on April 26 — only four days before the court’s deadline for Schmidt. For now, legislative leaders expect to heed calls from Colyer and Schmidt to delay their break until a school funding bill has passed.

They do face a potential hurdle: Saturday was the 90th calendar day since lawmakers convened their annual session, and the state constitution requires two-thirds majorities of both houses to pass a resolution to stay in session longer. In the past, it’s not been a problem.

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By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN

Arm wrestling over a final deal on Kansas school spending begins in earnest Friday after the Senate settled on a figure that’s much lower than the House’s position.

The bill squeaked through after hours of discussion, winning the last vote necessary only after leaders forced lawmakers who initially abstained to weigh in.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators in Kansas have advanced two rival plans that increase funding for public schools in hopes of satisfying a state Supreme Court mandate.

The House approved a bill Tuesday that would phase in a roughly $520 million increase in education funding over five years. The 71-53 vote sent it to the Senate.

But a special GOP-controlled Senate committee on school finance approved its own bill Tuesday. It would phase in an increase of $274 million over five years while targeting much of the new money to early childhood education. A Senate debate is next.

Many Democrats question whether either plan would satisfy the Supreme Court.

The court ruled in October that the state’s current spending of more than $4 billion a year is not sufficient under the state constitution.

By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN

Republicans in the Kansas House couldn’t win enough votes Monday to increase school funding by hundreds of millions of dollars. Conservatives in their own party thought it was too much money, Democrats said it was too little.

House Majority Leader Don Hineman said legislative leaders would keep working toward a compromise and could come back with a fresh proposal on Tuesday.

“Hopefully we have a different outcome tomorrow,” he said late Monday, but added that the bill as written is “all we can afford at this point in time.”

Republican and Democratic legislators on both sides of the aisle have signaled they want to avoid a tax hike after passing a politically painful a $1.2 billion increase last year.

The bill that failed Monday by a 65-55 vote sought to end a school finance lawsuit by ratcheting up spending over the next five years. By the end of that period, annual school funding would be half a billion dollars higher than what was already budgeted for next school year.

Rep. Ed Trimmer tried but failed to tack on an extra $295 million to the ultimate annual increase to help schools deal with the effects of inflation. The Democrat said the bill, as it was designed, shortchanged schools on that front.

“I was trying to make it a true cost of living,” he said. “At least it was an improvement, getting us more on the right road.”

Democratic Minority Leader Jim Ward voted against the bill and said if Republicans want to bring in votes from his side of the aisle, they should consult with school districts suing the state about what would resolve the lawsuit.

The proposal to include more money to cover inflation appeared to take its cue from the districts pressing legal challenges on state funding. Their lawyers were listed on an informational sheet Democrats distributed during a caucus meeting earlier in the day.

An amendment from Republican Rep. Brenda Landwehr might have attracted more conservative votes, but at the cost of moderate ones.

Landwehr proposed allowing publicly funded vouchers for parents to send their children to private schools if the Kansas Supreme Court cuts off funding to public schools.

Rep. Chuck Weber, another Republican, said a policy like that could have won him over.

“We want to keep our kids going to school some place,” he said. “(Landwehr’s proposal) would have put pressure on the court to see how ludicrous it is to shut down our schools.”

The Kansas Supreme Court could block distribution of money to schools in the course of finding a funding law unconstitutional. The closest Kansas has come to that situation was in 2005.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans may pass their own plan out of committee on Tuesday. That bill is dwarfed by the House proposal that failed. It would add $50 to $60 million in funding for schools.

Sen. Molly Baumgardner, chair of the Senate school finance committee, said the idea is to address the court’s concerns by targeting extra money at early childhood education and other programs known to help students achieve.

Both the failed House bill and the Senate bill that could advance Tuesday propose funding increases that come on top of the $300 million approved by the Legislature last year. Most of that boost took effect this school year, and the final third will be phased in next school year.

The chairman of the House tax committee had said the House’s $500 million plan could be done without a tax hike. Yet a few months ago lawmakers balked at, and were even angered by, a similar proposal from then-Gov. Sam Brownback on his way out of office.

Meanwhile, a proposal to amend the state constitution to prevent schools from battling out funding levels in court will have a hearing Tuesday.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt urged the House Judiciary Committee to let Kansans weigh in by putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

After decades of sparing with the court over whether they’re providing “suitable” funding for public schools, Schmidt said, lawmakers appear as deeply divided as ever.

“I don’t think we’re closer to having a clear answer after a thousand plus pages (of studies and litigation) then we were when we started,” he told the committee.

The brand-new lobbying coalition behind the push announced their membersMonday. They include the Kansas Chamber, Kansas Farm Bureau, the Kansas Contractors Association and others.

Jim McLean of the Kansas News Service contributed to this story.

Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ. 
———–

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on Kansas legislators’ debate over increasing spending on public schools (all times local):

5 p.m.

The Kansas House has rejected a proposal to phase in a $522 million increase in aid to the state’s public schools over five years.

The vote Monday was 65-55 against giving first-round approval to a bill that Republican leaders believed would meet a Kansas Supreme Court mandate to boost education funding. The court ruled in October that the state’s current spending of more than $4 billion a year is not sufficient under the state constitution.

Leaders of the House’s GOP majority immediately scheduled another debate on school funding for Tuesday.

Many Democrats did not think the spending increase was big enough, while some conservative Republicans wouldn’t support the increase in the bill.

GOP leaders said the measure was about as much as the state could afford without increasing taxes.

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3:35 p.m.

Republican lawmakers in Kansas have blocked an attempt by Democrats to add more spending to a five-year education funding plan designed to satisfy a court mandate to boost state aid to public schools.

The House debated a bill Monday to phase in a $522 million increase in funding over five years. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in October that the state’s current aid of more than $4 billion a year is not adequate under the state constitution.

Democratic Rep. Ed Trimmer of Winfield proposed making the increase in aid $295 million higher so the state would phase in an increase of $817 million over five years.

The vote was 76-46 against his amendment. Republican leaders said the bill is as much as the state can afford without raising taxes.