TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) An attorney for the state has responded to legal attacks on a new Kansas school funding law by saying in court that the state constitution doesn’t require the best system or a perfect one.
Arthur Chalmers made the remark Friday at the end of a two-day hearing in Shawnee County District Court. A three-judge panel is considering a request from four school districts to block the new that took effect in April.
Hutchinson Superintendent Shelly Kiblinger testified that the new school funding law forced her district into staff cuts.
The law trimmed aid during the current school year by $54 million and scrapped a per-student funding formula in favor of predictable “block grants.”
Chalmers noted that state aid still is higher than during the 2013-14 school year.
