TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Kansas legislators will go back and consider all recommendations for education funding in order to comply with a court mandate to boost school aid, a key state senator said Monday.
Sen. Tom Arpke said the chamber’s Ways and Means Committee expected to reopen discussions of the public school budget on Thursday.
The Kansas Supreme Court’s recent ruling said past cuts in aid to poor school districts created unconstitutional gaps in funding between them and wealthier districts. The court ordered lawmakers to fix the problem by July 1.
Arpke and two senators met briefly Monday to enable debate on the issue through a minor addition to a budget report, which contained most of the recommendations made at the start of the legislative session by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.
Arpke, a Salina Republican, said more state spending was likely to be proposed to comply with the order, but it was more complicated than just a clean measure appropriating another $129 million as envisioned in the court’s ruling. Bills have been introduced in the House and Senate that would spend the $129 million from existing state revenue sources.
“I’m not saying that we’re not going to write a check, I’m just saying we’re not going to write a check for $130 million,” he said.
The Ways and Means Committee is expected to consider all aspects of the state’s more than $3 billion annual spending for public schools, including money spent on transportation and teacher pensions.
“I think we will be looking at all of those things,” Arpke said.
The House Appropriations Committee planned a briefing Tuesday from Attorney General Derek Schmidt on the state Supreme Court’s ruling in the lawsuit filed by parents and school districts. Schmidt has told legislators that the ruling gives them various options for complying, but the attorney general has stopped short of offering an exact solution.
Legislators from both chambers and political parties have asked the Kansas Department of Education’s fiscal staff to produce projections showing the impact on each school district from a variety of changes in the funding formula.
“Just about everything you can think of that has a part of it, we’ve played with,” said Dale Dennis, deputy commissioner of education.
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