Wichita district’s attorneys call new school finance law a ‘shell game’

Attorneys for the Wichita school district accused Kansas lawmakers of perpetrating “a financial shell game” and exacerbating inequities among school districts in a court filing Monday.

The Kansas Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments May 10 to determine whether legislation, which was signed by Gov. Sam Brownback earlier this month, satisfies an order for more equitable funding among districts.

HB 2655 changes the way equalization aid for property-poor school districts is distributed, but most districts end up receiving the same amount of aid they were set to receive next school year under the state’s block grant plan.

“The bill was not intended to fix equity,” attorneys for Wichita and other plaintiff school districts argue in a brief filed Monday, calling on the court to reject the new law.

Attorneys Alan Rupe and John Robb argue that the legislation, which is revenue-neutral for the state, was “intended to ensure that the State did not increase overall funding and to ensure that property-wealthy, politically powerful districts kept the increased aid that resulted from the adoption of” block grants last year.

The court gave lawmakers a June 30 deadline to fix inequities in school funding or risk the closure of the state’s schools.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt submitted nearly 800 pages of documents earlier this month meant to outline lawmakers’ rationale for passing the bill, which changes the way the state calculates equalization aid for property-poor districts.

The plaintiffs’ brief argues that the legislative record shows that lawmakers “ignored warnings of equity problems” with the bill and “misrepresented the testimony provided to them.”

This story was originally published April 25, 2016 at 5:38 PM with the headline "Wichita district’s attorneys call new school finance law a ‘shell game’."