The Kansas Supreme Court has struck down a stopgap law and told the legislature to revamp the way schools are funded in the state.
State Representative Sydney Carlin reacted to the decision announced Thursday, saying “I’m excited about the state’s decision coming in at this time, where we have some time to deal with it here at the capital.”
The court says the state left poor districts $54 million short, and that the Republican-backed law enacted last year doesn’t comply with the Kansas Constitution.
USD 383’s Aaron Estabrook also released a statement on the ruling, saying “the ruling means that instead of the Brownback political class continuing to play games and not addressing the inequity of an unconstitutional block grant system, people like (Wamego) Rep. (Ron) Highland have been given a deadline of June 30th to fix the problem or Kansas schools will not be opening their doors in August.”
Lawmakers originally approved the 2015 stopgap law as a temporary solution, replacing a per-student formula that distributed more than $4 billion a year to schools in favor of stable “block grants.”
