Kansas Supreme Court justices have started deliberations to determine whether they think an increase in public school funding meets legal muster according to the state constitution.
Legislators, on the strength of a windfall for moderate Republicans in the Nov. 2016 election, responded to a court order last October to boost substantially state aid to schools, with the preferred outcome of better test scores and fewer students failing to graduate high school. Mainly, the justices observed funding for schools throughout the state was not fair and equitable.
That came from assessment of a lawsuit filed by several districts in 2010, when, incidentally, this years graduates were fifth-graders.
The ruling: $4 billion spent annually on schools isnt enough.
The response was a package of nearly $550 million that is intended to flow to schools over five years, which was laid before the justices a month ago.
An interesting aside: Legislators commissioned a review of school finance paid dearly for it and learned, from the investigators perspective, school funding should be increased by $2 billion. How much influence that will hold with the justices is conjecture.
They have promised to give a ruling on the funding package by June 30.
If they find it insufficient, recourse will be for legislators to return to Topeka and make another effort. Early on, before the $2 billion study was issued, the attitude among legislators was $600 million, or a little less, would be enough to satisfy the court.
Now, with the new study lurking in the background, no one remotely familiar with what is occurring is willing to risk giving odds on how the justices will rule.
No thoughtful person would deny that schools are underfunded, from, and even before, Gov. Sam Brownback championed horrendous income tax cuts in 2011-12.
Those cuts led to severe reductions, including teacher terminations and programs being either put on hold or tossed out the window. Some districts reduced schedules and tried to cram fives days of instruction into four.
Since all that occurred, schools have been in a lurch, trying to cope and, with additional funding after the rescission of most of Brownbacks march to prosperity that tumbled off the road about as quickly as it was instituted, putting forth efforts to reclaim what was lost.
A concern of Gov. Jeff Colyer and legislators is that the court will put a clamp on distribution of funds available as part of its decision, which would leave schools on the outside looking in when fiscal year 2019 begins on July 1.
SURELY, SOME accord will be struck, regardless what the justices rule.
That is of gigantic inportance.
The single most important thing the state does and fund is the education of our children, primarily in elementary and secondary schools, but also in post-secondary education at the four- and two-year levels, as well as vocational and technical opportunities.
Those who think otherwise may have spent too much time gazing out the window during their daily lessons, and likely have spent a lifetime ruing the transgression.
