Wichita school district’s attorney criticizes Democrats’ school finance plan

The attorney for school districts suing the state over school funding says a plan presented by Democratic leaders might not pass court muster.

The Kansas Supreme Court has given lawmakers a June 30 deadline to fix inequities in school funding or risk a shutdown of the state’s schools. A special session to resolve the issue is set to begin on Thursday.

Democratic leaders unveiled a plan last week that would enact $39 million in budget cuts to provide equalization aid for poor districts, a fix identified by the court. More than half of that money would come from other parts of the K-12 system.

The Democratic plan would take $15.2 million from the state’s extraordinary needs fund, a pool of money meant to help districts cope with unexpected costs. Some Republican leaders also have floated the idea of using this as a funding source for any school finance solution.

The fund comes from a 0.4 percent surcharge to all districts that was established as part of the block grants lawmakers enacted last year.

John Robb, the attorney for plaintiff districts including Wichita, has repeatedly called for lawmakers to spend $38 million to address the court order. But he said using the extraordinary needs fund “causes heartburn” and would risk creating new inequities.

“This was the relief valve for the block grant system. It was part of their justification for the system to begin with, so if you remove the relief valve, I think you create inequity in a different flavor,” Robb said. “It just pops out inequitable somewhere else: the district that gains 100 kids that weren’t expected or the district whose valuation precipitously dropped for some reason. Those were the reasons they put it in there, so I think it would be a bad idea for them to use that funding source.”

Robb also said using this pool of money could undermine the adequacy of school funding. The court still has to rule on whether funding is adequate, but it warned lawmakers not to run afoul of the adequacy requirement as they work toward a solution on equity.

“If they now vanish the relief valve, I think they shoot themselves in the foot on adequacy,” he said.

Robb did not say where lawmakers should find the money instead.

Asked about Robb’s criticism, Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, said using the extraordinary needs fund is not a new idea.

“I mean, I’ve seen that on, I think, (House budget committee chairman) Ron Ryckman’s original list of revenue sources when he was pushing for the $38 (million) on the House side,” Hensley said, referring to a plan that had a hearing in March but did not advance out of committee. “That’s been on every list that I’ve seen. … I don’t know where else (to find the money) – unless the Republicans want to raid KDOT again, which obviously we oppose that idea.

“I just thought it was appropriate to use the extraordinary needs funding, because we’re in an extraordinary situation. We’ve got to address the equity order, and we’ve got to do it before June 30,” Hensley said. “That’s why I thought it was an appropriate use of that money.”

Hensley said Democrats would formally introduce the bill on Thursday, the first day of the special session.

The Democrats would also take $7.3 million from virtual school funding and use it for aid to poor districts.

Robb said his understanding was that fund had money available. He said he did not see a problem with using it for an equity fix at this time.

Republicans have yet to release their own plan for a school finance fix.

This story was originally published June 21, 2016 at 1:13 PM with the headline "Wichita school district’s attorney criticizes Democrats’ school finance plan."