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“Senate Bill 7, the controversial legislation that repeals the old school finance formula and replaces it for two years with a system of block grants to school districts, officially became law Thursday [April 2] when it was published in the Kansas Register. “For the time being, at least, school districts will immediately start to be funded under a different formula. Some, including the Lawrence school district, will start receiving less money than they had expected when they adopted their budgets last August. But it remains to be seen how long state courts will allow that to continue.” Read...

“Kansas school districts are facing financial pressures after losing $51 million they expected to receive for the current school year after Gov. Sam Brownback signed a school funding overhaul bill in March. The new school funding plan scraps the previous formula for determining state aid and replaces it with block grants, which will give districts a fixed amount of money for the next two years while the Legislature develops a new formula. “The Twin Valley board … members said in a news release that the district was having difficulty withstanding ‘the present mid-year, unplanned financial cuts recently signed...