“The Kansas Supreme Court late Tuesday agreed to give up oversight of the landmark school funding case that was decided four years ago.
The court ruled in favor of Attorney General Kris Kobach’s motion to give up jurisdiction of the case, saying that the state met its legal obligation to sufficiently fund schools with the final phased increases planned for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years…
“Justice Eric Rosen dissented in the ruling, given the history of school funding. He would have denied the state’s motion and ruled for the court to keep jurisdiction…
“‘The Kansas legislature has proven itself hungry to violate constitutional funding requirements, but this court’s continued jurisdiction…has prevented it from doing so,’ the plaintiffs argued in a motion filed in the case…
“Judith Deedy, executive director of Game on Kansas, a public education advocacy group, had been ‘vehemently’ opposed to the court giving up jurisdiction.
“’We are disappointed with the court’s decision, given the reluctance of the legislature to fund education except under court order,’ Deedy said in a text.
“’We also can’t ignore the slow pace at which justice occurs. It took multiple years of litigation plus multiple years of phasing in relief in the Gannon case just to get to where we were with the Montoy case in 2009.’
“Deedy said the Legislature didn’t live up to its funding commitments in a separate school funding case from 2006. Because the court didn’t retain jurisdiction then, a new lawsuit had to be filed and it lasted until the Supreme Court ruled in 2019, she said.”
Published on Facebook on Feb. 6th, 2024.