As we read the reactions of our governor and some legislators, several things come to mind. First, they are angry at being required to fund schools equitably and adequately. They are balking at providing our children the resources they need. That’s what this is actually about.

Second, this is not judicial activism. The legislature backed away from promises made in the Montoy case over a decade ago. Funding was increased for a couple of years, and then Base State Aid Per Pupil was cut during the recession and hasn’t been restored. The Gannon case wasn’t brought by the court, but was brought to the court, and the court has an obligation to hear it and rule on its merits. If anything, the court has been extremely patient with the legislature, not retaining jurisdiction in Montoy and repeatedly giving the legislature the opportunity to fix the problem. We are aware, though, that in the intervening years, our children are moving through their academic careers. This ruling is also being used to call for voters to vote against the justices in retention elections this fall, which is an outrageous attack on the role of the judiciary and our 3-branch system of government.

We disagree with the line that the court is unreasonably threatening to shut down schools over 1% of the budget and holding our children hostage. We ask why it is ok for the legislature to refuse to fund an additional 1%. Underlying all of this is the state’s revenue problem, but it is self-inflicted. Our children didn’t volunteer to be collateral damage in the Brownback tax policy experiment, and the Constitution doesn’t cease to exist when it becomes inconvenient to adhere to it.

From the Kansas Association of School Boards Facebook:

Gov. Sam Brownback: It is unfortunate that the Kansas Supreme Court has put at risk the education of Kansas students by threatening to close schools on June 30. The court is engaging in political brinksmanship with this ruling, and the cost will be borne by our children.

We will carefully consider the implications of the Court’s ruling and its disregard for the proper role of the Kansas legislature.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt

In its latest decision, the Kansas Supreme Court concluded the Legislature has cured the constitutional infirmities in the capital outlay funding system. But the Court once again rejected the Legislature’s good faith efforts to cure what the Court identified as constitutional inequities in equalization aid for local option budgets.

To put the current situation in context, the State of Kansas annually spends roughly $4 billion on K-12 public schools with another $2 billion coming from federal aid and local revenues. At most, what remains at issue in this case is less than $40 million, possibly much less. This struggle between the Court and the Legislature is now narrowly focused on less than 1 percent of the overall school budget.

I am distressed that the strain and uncertainty caused by this dispute persist even though more than 99 percent of the school-funding system for next year has been approved and accepted by both the Court and the Legislature. The Legislature specifically asked the Court to sever and disable only that part of the school funding system that the Court thinks remains out of compliance, but the Court instead chose to strike down the entire funding system.

All agree that Kansas schools, teachers, parents and kids need certainty that schools will open next fall, but today’s decision undermines that objective. There is no good reason a Court order about less than 1 percent of the education budget should close the schools.

Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita

I will be talking with my colleagues in the Senate about the best course forward dealing with the Court’s ruling — a ruling which tramples the checks and balances enshrined in the state constitution. Certainly this unconstitutional overreach, and making students the collateral damage of judicial activism, should weigh heavily on the minds of all Kansas voters when many of these justices are up for retention in November.

House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell

The court has yet again demonstrated it is the the most political body in the state of Kansas. Dumping the ruling at 5 p.m. the day before a long weekend and holding children hostage. This despite the fact that the legislature acted in good faith to equalize the record amounts of money going to schools. This court is planning to shut down schools over less than 1 percent of the total education budget. Frankly, I find their actions disgraceful and hope Kansas voters will remember this in November when deciding whether these Justices should be retained.

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka

Republican legislators have once again failed to comply with their constitutional duty to fairly fund our schools. If they truly concerned about keeping schools open in August, they should use the Sine Die session to appropriate $38 million* for school funding equity rather than waste taxpayers’ dollars on an election year charade over which bathroom students can use.

*Excerpt from the Constitutional Protest, published on page 2199 in the Senate Journal:

In addition, if this bill is subsequently found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, the majority party of this Legislature will have brought us dangerously closer to the Court’s June 30 deadline to comply with the Gannon decision. If the majority party is truly concerned about keeping schools open next fall, they should have appropriated $38 million in the fiscal year 2017 budget bill which passed the Legislature over a month ago. Appropriating $38 million would have been and remains a far more certain solution in meeting the equity test in Gannon than the uncertainty resulting from the passage of this bill.

House Minority Leader Tom Burroughs, D-Kansas City

For years, Gov. Brownback and his Republican allies in the legislature have refused to adequately fund our schools. Today, the Supreme Court finally said enough is enough. Kansas school children deserve better. The legislature should take whatever action is necessary to keep our schools open, something Democrats have been calling for all along.

Alan Rupe, lead attorney for plaintiff school districts

As expected, today the Kansas Supreme Court once again found that the Legislature has failed to cure the inequities present in the Local Option Budget – Supplemental State Aid provisions of the school funding system. In today’s decision, the Court held the following: While HB 2655 does cure the capital outlay inequities affirmed to exist in Gannon II, it fails to cure the LOB
inequities, even taking into account the hold harmless and extraordinary need provisions. The unconstitutional LOB funding mechanism is not severable from the general statutory scheme for K-12 public school finance, thus making CLASS unconstitutional. The Court held that the panel’s remedial orders remain stayed and jurisdiction of this case was retained by the Supreme Court.

The Court has given the Legislature until June 30, 2016 to try once again to cure the inequities in the LOB system. The Court again cautioned that without a constitutionally equitable school finance system, the schools in Kansas will be unable to operate.The Court made clear that if closure resulted, it would “not be because this court would have ordered them closed. Rather, it would be because this court would have performed its sworn duty to the people of Kansas under their constitution to review the legislature’s enactments and to ensure the legislature’s compliance with its own duty under Article 6 … Simply put, the state legislature’s unconstitutional enactment is void; it has not performed its duty.”

Plaintiffs remain optimistic that the Legislature will take this last, last chance offered by the Court to put Kansas’ schoolchildren back on a path toward equitable school funding and perform its constitutional duty to provide adequate and equitable schooling to all Kansas kids.

Ryan Wright, Executive Director of Kansans for Fair Courts

The Kansas Supreme Court has done its job to once again protect the Kansas Constitution and our children’s right to an equitable education as guaranteed by the constitution. Now, it’s time for the Legislature to meet its constitutional mandate.