Posted on 06/16/2005 11:04:20 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Still smarting from a fight over evolution, Kansas schools now face an almost unthinkable possibility: They might not reopen in the fall because of a political and legal battle over education funding.
The Kansas Supreme Court has ordered legislators to provide millions more in aid to schools by July 1. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has called a special legislative session for June 22 to act on the order.
Some Republicans who control the Legislature want to defy the court, arguing it cannot tell them exactly what to spend on anything. Their tough talk has educators and others worried the court will order schools to remain closed until legislators comply.
Such orders have been issued or threatened in other states, and a Kansas judge even told the state last year that it could not spend a penny on its schools until legislators fixed the funding system, a decision that would have kept classrooms closed - and 445,000 students at home - had the Supreme Court not put it on hold.
"It truly does seem to me to be the natural consequence," said Dan Biles, an attorney for the State Board of Education.
Such a development would represent another embarrassment for the Kansas school system, which was ridiculed around the country in 1999 when the state school board deleted most references to evolution. The school system later reversed course. But now it is likely to adopt new science standards that are critical of evolution.
Michele Henry, a Topeka mother of two daughters, ages 7 and 9, said legislators need to provide enough money for schools.
"Other people are not allowed not to do their jobs," said Henry, who is the president of the parent-teacher organization at her daughters' school. "Their job is to fund education programs for our children."
The Supreme Court's directive June 3 came in a six-year-old lawsuit from Dodge City and Salina, where parents and administrators claimed Kansas spends too little money on education and distributes its aid unfairly, shortchanging poor children, minorities and struggling students.
In January, the Supreme Court said legislators had failed to do their duty under the Kansas Constitution to provide a suitable education for all children. But the justices were not specific about a fix.
GOP leaders pushed through a plan to increase state school aid by $142 million, or about 5 percent, while avoiding the tax increases that Sebelius and other Democrats saw as necessary.
The high court said that the plan was inadequate and that the increase for the next school year must be $285 million, or 10 percent. The court also said it could order much larger spending increases in the future.
Kansas' Republican legislators, particularly conservatives, were furious.
"I think it's high time we confronted the court," said Rep. Frank Miller. "One thing we could do is just refuse to obey."
Such rhetoric has some educators worried about the next school term.
"Families organize their lives around the school system," said Andrea Ewert, a counselor at Hutchinson High School. "When school is in session, children don't only have breakfast here but lunch here, and in many elementary schools, there are after-school programs to keep them in a safe environment."
In a similar dispute in New York state, a master appointed by the state's highest court recently said New York City's schools need an additional $5.6 billion over the next four years. In New Jersey in 1976, the state's highest court ordered schools to remain closed, successfully forcing legislators to improve funding. Threats from high courts in Arizona and Texas compelled legislators in those states to do the same.
"That is a remedy that clearly is within the court's power," said Michael Rebell, executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which sued over New York City's education funding. "The threat is usually very effective."
The Kansas court has not said what it would do if lawmakers defied the order.
"I would just as soon not learn the answer to that question," said Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, a Republican.
Kansas is the most socially left State that I've ever been in. Feminism and homo-activism have been rampant there for a long time--even after some Republicans recently started getting elected. Taxes are very high there. And long ago, the socialist politics of eastern Kansas killed agriculture in the western half of the State.
it is sickening how this story is written. sobbing about the children and such...
FYI, an update...
Well the obvious fix, since the Kansas Constitution provides appellate juridiction to the Supreme Court 'as provided by law' is to pass a statute making the state budget not a matter of which the Supreme Court has appellate juridiction, retroactive a few years.
Of course we'd need enough folks with the backbone to override Sibelius's veto.
The courts did the same thing here in Ohio about 12 years ago. The legislature still has not done anything. The courts ruled the way we fund education here in Ohio unconstitutional; ie. the state spends about 12 billion a year to little.
FYI
Kathleen Sebelius is a dangerous socialist.
LOL, come on. Where in Kansas do you live?
little more than graduates who take jobs in other states for a long time
That sounds like something wrong besides schooling to me.
Newspapers claiming brain drain??? That kind of sounds like doubletalk to me:).
...The court also said it could order much larger spending increases in the future...
Note to Kansas Legislature. An immediate liquidation of these tyrants posititions is needed now.
New Hampshire was in this same situation when I lived there...about 7 years ago. I don't know if they ever found a solution. I think Kentucky might have caved in and equalized funding (i.e. take money away from wealthier districts and give it to poorer districts). I believe this is the ONLY way to satisfy the courts.
The Ohio house has passed a real fix but it is just a start. The house has decided to give about 16,000 school vouchers to parents of student in failing schools. We here in Ohio are now waiting on the Senate to do there job.
They wouldn't have this problem if there were separation of state and school. What right have the judges to order higher taxes? Too bad that schools now are feeding the children all three meals a day and babysit them all day. Parents may have to feed their own kids...many of them illegals who have no business in our schools in the first place.
I was reading an article the other day that said Europeans who study our educational system are appalled at the way we do our funding - they give more money to the poorer districts because generally the poorer students need more remediation & extra help to do as well as those from higher socioeconomic groups.
Of course, their education systems are much more centralized than ours.
I'm afraid you're right.
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