Pressed for a best-guess estimate, Kent Thompson thinks Kansas Supreme Court justices are thinking in terms of a $600 million increase in state aid to public education.
The justices ruled Monday school finance was inadequate to provide an adequate education for Kansas kids, and the funding formula results in unfair distribution.
Thompson, who represents most of Allen County including Iola and Humboldt in the Kansas House, said he wasn’t surprised at the ruling.
“I fully anticipated the decision,” he said.
The decision was the result of a lawsuit filed by several school districts, which proposed funding was inadequate and inequitable.
“We spent most of last session coming up with $293 million” to fix a previous ruling that threw out Gov. Sam Brownback’s block-grant funding, and ordered more money be made available for education.
The Legislature’s response wasn’t enough, the justices ruled Monday.
Now what?
“I think we need to contract with experts” to determine what is adequate — $600 million being a guesstimate — and equitable, and then find enough votes to make the decision veto-proof, or a two-thirds majority in House and Senate, Thompson said.
Veto-proof, because Jeff Colyer, Brownback’s successor when the governor leaves for a religious assignment within President Trump’s administration, is cut from much the same cloth as Brownback and would be expected to veto a major tax increase to fund a substantial school funding increase.
During the past session legislators recouped much of the tax money lost to 2012-13 income tax cuts in Brownback’s embrace of trickle-down economics, with restoration of $1.2 billion in tax revenue. During intervening years state agencies’ funding was cut deeply by persistent revenue shortfalls.
“KDOT (transportation department) was milked like a cow, with about $4 billion taken from it,” Thompson said.
Justices gave legislators until June 30, 1018 — the 2018 session starts in early January — to devise a fiscal answer that meets muster.
Hence, Thompson’s interest in bringing experts on board to give legislators a clear idea of what would be acceptable, with there being no specific dollar guidelines from the Court.
