Our statement on the latest Gannon opinion is included in this article along with those of legislators and other local advocacy groups. “The Gannon decision is generally what we hoped for and expected. Our schools have been underfunded for most of the past 16 years, and the legislature cannot continue to delay properly investing in public education and our children’s future. The court’s opinion was measured and did not dictate specific funding levels. It properly rejected the State’s ‘Successful Schools Model’ which had essentially used the average funding levels of 41 schools that performed better than would be...
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CJ reports on Supreme Court decision
“The Supreme Court declared unanimously that lawmakers’ current funding plan was unconstitutional and gave the Kansas Legislature until next year to once and for all solve persistent problems with allocation of state aid to public education. The justices took issue with the overall amount the Legislature appropriated, referred to as ‘adequacy,’ and the way it divides up money between districts, or ‘equity.’” Read more here: http://cjonline.com/news/state-government/education/2017-10-02/kansas-supreme-court-legislature-school-finance-formula Originally posted on Facebook 10/3/17....
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Leave a Comment Senate leadership attacks court in statement
Senators Wagle, Longbine and Denning are already promising to defy the court, despite the fact that the court did not dictate a particular funding amount. We would like to know how they intend to provide “an exceptional education” without adequate funding. This is not leadership....
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Leave a Comment Supreme Court finds school funding unconstitutional again
The Kansas Supreme Court has once again found school funding unconstitutional with respect to adequacy and equity. Read the opinion here: http://www.kscourts.org/Cases-and-Opinions/opinions/SupCt/2017/20171002/113267.pdf. Here are some key quotes from the opinion. “Including today’s decision, by our count inadequacy has been judicially declared to exist from school years 2002-2003 through 2018-2019, with the possible exception of three years of ‘substantial compliance’ for ‘interim purposes.’…With that regrettable history in mind, while we stay the issuance of today’s mandate through June 30, 2018, after that date we will not allow ourselves to be placed in the position of being complicit actors in the...
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