Kansas Court’s Schools Ruling Is Latest in Ongoing Controversy

In a much-watched case, the Kansas Supreme Court has given the state until June 30 to enact an “equitable” school funding formula or risk shutdown of all the state’s public schools, according to the Kansas City Star. The ruling in the case known as Gannon v. Kansas finds that the state has not equitably distributed funding among school districts, unfairly disadvantaging poor schools.

In a statement, the pro-courts group Kansans for Fair Courts applauded the Court, which it said has “protected kids” and the Constitution, and urged legislators to “do their job.”

Education funding has been a source of ongoing acrimony between the state Supreme Court and the Brownback administration and its legislative allies for years. As the Court in 2014 was ordering state lawmakers to fix unequal funding among school districts, a flurry of measures erupted to curtail Court authority and funding, and were described by critics as “political payback.” (See Gavel Grab.)The administration has also repeatedly sought to change the way state Supreme Court justices are chosen. Most recently, the administration and allies sought to replace merit selection with a system of direct gubernatorial appointment. The measure was defeated in the Kansas House in a bipartisan vote, which Justice at Stake lauded as a “resounding victory for fair and impartial courts.” (See Gavel Grab.)

Tags: Kansas

Originally published at gavelgrab.org.