School funding amendment to get Senate vote Friday

The state Senate will vote Friday on a proposed constitutional amendment to prevent courts from closing schools if the Legislature fails to suitably fund them.

The resolution to put that amendment to a public vote passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday afternoon.

Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson, said the plan is to bring it to a floor vote Friday morning.

The committee moved the proposal on a voice vote over the objections of Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka.

Hensley said it would be redundant to an existing state law passed in 2005.

He also handed out results of a survey by Public Policy Polling showing a majority of Kansas respondents opposed amending the Constitution to limit the courts’ powers on school finance issues.

Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson, argued that a state statute isn’t enough.

“In light of the fact that we have a court that seems to take a very unique reading of our Constitution, we need to be very diligent to protect Kansas school children in our schools and keep them open,” Bruce said.

Republicans also scoffed at Hensley’s poll, saying Public Policy Polling is a primarily Democratic pollster and questioning its methodology.

“I think (there’s) only one poll we should listen to and that’s the poll in the general election in November,” said committee Chairman Jeff King, R-Independence. “And unless we put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that raises this question to Kansas voters, the only poll that matters will never happen.”

The Senate amendment would add language to the state Constitution barring the court or the Legislature from closing schools. To pass, it would need two-thirds votes in both houses of the Legislature and a majority vote of the electorate.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the current school finance system is unconstitutionally unfair to poor districts and ordered a shutdown of the state’s school system starting next month if the Legislature doesn’t fix it.

King said the Senate committee’s amendment is limited and stressed that it wouldn’t change the Legislature’s responsibility to provide “suitable” funding for schools.

He said 46 states have had school finance litigation. Only two, Kansas and New Jersey, have faced the threat of closed schools and only New Jersey has ever actually closed schools in a funding dispute, he said.

The Kansas court would still have “all the remedies used by 44 of the 46 states” where school finance has been a court issue, King said.

Sen. David Haley, D-Kansas City and the ranking Democrat on the committee, urged caution.

“I’m worried whenever we begin tinkering with the Constitution,” Haley said.

Two measures introduced earlier Thursday in the House would go further than the Senate proposal to limit judicial power over school finance.

Rep. John Rubin, R-Shawnee, introduced a proposed amendment that would include the Senate’s ban on courts closing schools. Plus it includes additional language setting school funding at 45 percent of all state spending and putting the state Board of Education in charge of deciding how the money gets disbursed to school districts.

It would also remove the requirement that the Legislature provide “suitable” funding.

Rubin said he’s flexible on the 45 percent figure but thinks there needs to be a set percentage and it needs to be in the Constitution.

The second proposal introduced at House Judiciary would create a new branch of the court system called “Superior Court.”

Rep. Craig McPherson, R-Olathe, introduced the bill.

He said it would give the Superior Court oversight of school finance and other civil and criminal appeals while the Supreme Court would continue to administer the court system and rule in cases where it is constitutionally required to do so.

If approved by legislators, either of the two constitutional amendments could go to voters at the November general election, lawmakers said.

McPherson’s proposal wouldn’t amend the language of the Constitution, so it could be passed by a simple majority of legislators and signed into law by Gov. Sam Brownback.

This story was originally published June 23, 2016 at 2:19 PM with the headline "School funding amendment to get Senate vote Friday."