Court approval of school fix is a relief

School administrators, parents and legislators could exhale late Tuesday afternoon, as the Kansas Supreme Court expressed satisfaction with the funding equity law approved by the Legislature last week and signed by the governor Monday.

Expectations were high that the fix that had passed with large, bipartisan majorities would be enough to remove the threat of a court-ordered shutdown of schools as the 2017 fiscal year begins Friday.

As Gov. Sam Brownback had noted in a Monday statement: “The effort to bring together legislators, educators and attorneys resulted in a bill supported by all parties and a stipulation by plaintiff’s attorney that House Bill 2001 satisfies the equity portion of this litigation.”

But the justices’ ruling Tuesday made it official: The solution crafted by a broad coalition of lawmakers – and with the essential input from superintendents, school boards and Education Commissioner Randy Watson – was sufficient to cure what the court had identified in February as inequities in how state aid was distributed among poor and wealthy districts under the two-year block grants.

It shouldn’t have taken two tries and a two-day special session, which Brownback called after the court ruled May 27 that earlier legislation actually exacerbated funding inequities. Lawmakers knew in February that it could take at least $38 million more, distributed according to the formula previously approved as constitutional by the court.

Still, not even some weekend squabbling over who should get credit for the resolution could diminish the achievement. Instead of heeding calls to defy the court, and with only a failed attempt by one chamber to pass a court-punishing constitutional amendment, the Legislature fulfilled its duty to schoolchildren and the state constitution.

“We did something pretty rare,” Rep. Steve Anthimides, R-Wichita, told The Eagle. “We compromised.”

As a result, Wichita’s USD 259 will see $10.3 million in additional state aid, more than half of which will take the form of a property tax reduction.

And no one need fear that the court will enjoin state aid to schools entirely and effectively power down the system.

What a relief.

What a demonstration of how cool heads and good will can avert a constitutional crisis.

And what a useful model for how to handle the education challenges ahead, including the 2017 Legislature’s epic task of writing a new school-finance formula and a likely Supreme Court ruling that total funding is constitutionally inadequate.

This story was originally published June 29, 2016 at 12:07 AM with the headline "Court approval of school fix is a relief."