TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Kansas Republicans, irked by a court’s threat to keep public schools closed until legislators change the way they’re funded, are considering an amendment to the state constitution blocking such rulings in the future.
John Robb, an attorney for four school districts suing the state over education funding, derided the plan “a crazy over-reaction” and “veiled power grab.”
State Senate Vice President Jeff King said Thursday that he is drafting a constitutional amendment that would declare courts cannot close public schools in education funding lawsuits. Several GOP lawmakers endorsed the idea, and Republican Gov. Sam Brownback is sympathetic.
Even if the amendment is swiftly approved by the required two-thirds majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, it would go to voters on the November ballot. That means the proposal will have no immediate impact on the Kansas Supreme Court’s threat that schools will not be able to reopen after June 30 unless legislators rewrite education funding laws.
Brownback called the GOP-dominated Legislature into special session June 23 to respond to last month’s ruling, which found the state’s system for distributing more than $4 billion a year in aid to its 286 school districts is unfair to poorer schools.