TOPEKA — The Kansas Supreme Court issued a two-page order Tuesday releasing jurisdiction of the Gannon v. State school finance case after concluding the Legislature complied with mandates to resolve violations of the Kansas Constitution by suitably funding public education.
The Supreme Court issued the Gannon decision in 2019, but retained a grip on that case pending enactment of incremental increases in state aid to K-12 schools across Kansas. In a previous school funding case, the Legislature faltered on delivery of anticipated investment in schools and triggered litigation leading to Gannon.
Attorney General Kris Kobach requested the justices issue the order given funding adjustments were completed in the 2022-2023 school year. He said on X, former known as Twitter, the request was made of the Supreme Court at a point where the court-approved corrections were achieved.
“The court made the right decision,” the Republican attorney general said.
Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, said the Legislature shouldn’t see the court’s decision as a license to reduce funding to public schools and “crush an entire generation of Kansas students.
“Our schools have made so much progress over the past five years because we’ve fully funded K-12 education. Our students can’t afford to turn back the clock,” she said.
Kelly said nearly 500,000 public school students shouldn’t bear the brunt of risky state tax experiments capable of draining the state treasury and leading to school budget cuts, four-day academic weeks and costly litigation.
“I am committed to standing against any and all attempts to strip our schools of the funding they need to prepare our students for success,” the governor said.
The order signed by Chief Justice Marla Luckert said Gannon plaintiff school districts acknowledged the Legislature had appropriated funding for the current and upcoming school years based on the approved formula, but the plaintiffs also raised concern “no one can know whether these amounts are sufficient” to meet needs.
“Given the court’s stated purpose was to retain jurisdiction to ensure implementation of the phased-in amounts and that has occurred, a majority of the court grants the (Kobach) motion,” the Supreme Court said.
Justice Eric Rosen, an appointee of Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, dissented from the majority. The order said Rosen would have denied the attorney general’s request and preserved the court’s control of the case given “legislative history of school funding” in Kansas.
Justice Caleb Stegall, an appointee of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, didn’t participate in the court’s decision.
