Special session called to address funds for school

Governor Sam Brownback is calling Kansas lawmakers back to Topeka for a special session to avoid a threat by the Kansas Supreme Court to close public schools July 1. 

The special session is needed to remedy the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that Kansas’ funding formula for public schools is inequitable and unconstitutional. 

“After discussion with legislative leadership, I have decided to call a special session to keep Kansas schools open, despite the court’s threat to close them,” Gov. Brownback said in a press release. “It is distressing that the Kansas Supreme Court has put the schools and Legislature of Kansas in this position over less than one percent of school funding.”

Democratic leaders in both the Kansas House and Senate petitioned Brownback this past weekend for the special session. 

On May 27, just one week after hearing oral arguments on the issue, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the state Legislature has until June 30 to change the state’s funding formula for schools, and that failing to do so would mean that funds for education could not “lawfully be raised, distributed or spent.”

The ruling was part of the six-year-old Gannon v. State of Kansas court case and could mean adding nearly $40 million to the state’s education budget to provide more equal funding to smaller, rural schools. 

In 2015, lawmakers changed the funding formula from a per-pupil distribution with weighting standards for rural schools to a system of fixed block grants. 

Two local lawmakers provided similar reactions to the court’s ruling. Another local lawmaker said the issues was more of a “political battle and power struggle.” 

Senator Dennis Pyle (R-Hiawatha) said it’s the function of the Legislature, and not unelected judges, to appropriate funding for state education. 

“Over half the state's budget is spent on education,” Pyle said.  “The court is welcome to their opinion. However, the Kansas Supreme Court has a pitiful record when it comes to having its decisions reviewed by a higher court. The Kansas Supreme Court has been reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court more times in the last eight years than any other state Supreme Court. With all this in mind, where does the Kansas Supreme Court find in the state constitution the authority to close schools?”

Pyle said the Legislature wants to keep schools open, and that the Kansas Supreme Court has no constitutional or statutory authority to close schools. 

“The court itself has found that the constitution guarantees students certain educational rights, so closing schools would deprive students of such rights and thereby violate the constitution,” Pyle said. “But even if the court believes it has the right to do so, how are students better served by depriving them of education as opposed to participating in a system where funding might - just maybe in the eyes of seven judges - be inequitably distributed by less than one percent of total funding?”

Rep. Randy Garber (R-Sabetha) of the 62nd District said he is disappointed that the Supreme Court “continues to attempt to legislate from the bench when they have no power or authority to do so.”

“This equity ruling sadly has nothing to do with the educational interests of students,” Garber said. “It’s just another attempt to establish the judiciary branch as the dominant branch of government. It seems that education is taking a back seat to the court’s determination to prove it can compel the Legislature to accede to its demands. This is known as judicial tyranny.”

Garber said that K-12 public school funding is at an “all-time high” in Kansas and is expected to increase again in 2017. 

“The Legislature has done its job, and I personally see no reason why we need a special session,” he said. 

Rep. Becky Hutchins (R-Holton) said that funding for education has always been a “bone of contention” in Kansas.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Hutchins said. “Truthfully, I think it’s more of a political battle and a power struggle. It’s not about the kids. I would lay odds that every legislator down there, both Democrat and Republican, does not want to see schools close.”

Hutchins said the special session, which hasn’t been scheduled yet, will have to encompass at least two days.

“There are already ideas floating around about how to address the issue,” she said.