TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The Kansas Supreme Court threatened Thursday to shut down schools if lawmakers don't revamp the way the state funds public schools by July, ruling a law enacted last year as a temporary fix underfunded poor school districts by at least $54 million.
The high court unanimously decided the Republican-backed law violates the Kansas Constitution's requirement that the state finance a suitable education for every student. The law was intended to be a temporary fix, using more stable "block grants" to replace a per-student funding formula for distributing more than $4 billion a year to public schools. But the court said the law left schools severely underfunded.
"Without a constitutionally equitable school finance system, the schools in Kansas will be unable to operate beyond June 30," the court said in its unsigned ruing, which stems from a lawsuit that four school districts have been pursuing since 2010. The lawsuit argues poor districts, along with disadvantaged and minority students, were hurt most by the law.
The court gave lawmakers until the end of June to devise another system for distributing money to its 286 public schools. The court has yet to decide on the larger question of whether Kansas must boost its total education spending by at least $548 million annually, as ordered by a three-judge court panel last year.
Aides to top Republican legislative leaders said they needed time to digest ruling, which came as lawmakers prepared to vote on plans for eliminating a projected state-budget deficit of nearly $200 million for the fiscal year beginning in July. The state has struggled to balance its budget since legislators slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013, at Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's urging in an effort to stimulate the economy.
In response to the school districts' lawsuit, legislators approved a $140 million increase in education funding in 2014. But the estimated cost of that aid for the 2014-15 school year skyrocketed by $54 million under the state's previous per-student formula for distributing funding.
Republican legislators last year junked the old formula, moving to "block grants" that largely froze total aid outside of contributions to teacher pensions and denied districts the extra $54 million - after they'd built their budgets. In response, districts statewide cut programs, shed jobs and ended the 2014-15 school year early.
The underfunding figure now stands at about $73 million, according to John Robb, an attorney representing the Dodge City, Hutchinson, Wichita and Kansas City school districts, which sued the state.
"The court has given the Legislature a second chance to fix the thing," Robb said Thursday.
Dave Trabert, president of the Kansas Policy Institute, a conservative think tank influential with GOP legislators, said lawmakers can comply by redistributing the state's existing aid.
"That's what they should do," Trabert said. "Schools have plenty of money."
Robb said the court explicitly stated that lawmaker's couldn't move existing funds around.