Supreme Court Warns Lawmakers of School Shutdown

Jul. 3–TOPEKA — The Kansas Supreme Court threatened Saturday to cut off state funds to public schools, a move that effectively would shutter schools until lawmakers appropriated an additional $143 million.

For lawmakers, it’s known as the “nuclear option.” For parents and teachers, no metaphors are necessary.

“It is time they (legislators) get serious and recognize what this court is contemplating,” said Attorney General Phill Kline. “They can do this. They spoke of one remedy: Suspend funding, stop schools.”

Lawmakers, exhausted from 11 straight days of deadlocked negotiations, left Topeka Saturday night but agreed to return Wednesday to find a compromise on school funding. Even before the House and Senate adjourned for the holiday weekend, some had left after working several 12-hour-plus days.

“With four hours of sleep and many of my colleagues missing, it’s probably a wise decision” to go home for three days, said Sen. Kay O’Connor, an Olathe Republican. “We’ll try to pick up the pieces” on Wednesday.

They won’t have much time. The court scheduled a hearing for 9 a.m. Friday, when attorneys for the state will present arguments to demonstrate why the justices should not issue an injunction stopping the “expenditure and distribution of any funds for the operation of Kansas schools pending the Legislature’s compliance with this court’s June ruling.”

The June 3 ruling directed the Legislature to appropriate an additional $143 million in school funding by July 1. It also ordered the Legislature to provide up to $568 million next year.

The Supreme Court order arose from a lawsuit brought by students and parents in the Dodge City and Salina school districts. The plaintiffs challenged current levels of school funding.

The court order prompted the special session, which began June 22. Lawmakers have worked long hours trying to break a deadlock, but so far have been unsuccessful.

“This shows the court hasn’t been fooled by our bluster,” said Sen. Jean Schodorf, a Wichita Republican and chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee. “They mean business.”

Although he has criticized earlier orders, Kline said the court has the authority to shut down schools.

Schodorf said she hoped that the court’s announcement would put enough pressure on lawmakers to pass a plan Saturday. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, urged lawmakers to continue working until a school plan was passed. “We need to make school policy in the Statehouse and not in the courthouse,” Sebelius said in a prepared release.

If the court ordered a halt to school funding, there’s not much that anyone could do to stop schools from closing. Lawmakers and Kline said an appeal to federal court was unlikely to succeed.

Kline has suggested that the Kansas Board of Education, which oversees state education funds, set aside money for an entire school year before the court issues an order. The Board of Education will meet Tuesday to discuss the idea.

The legislative deadlock began even before the special session when Republican conservatives accused the court of overstepping its constitutional authority by ordering lawmakers to appropriate a specific amount of money for schools. Conservative lawmakers argued that appropriating money was the Legislature’s job and not the court’s, and they demanded a constitutional amendment to stop what they called a judicial coup d’etat.

Mays and other House conservatives insisted on making any school funding plan contingent on passage of a proposed constitutional amendment that would prohibit state courts from interfering with spending levels set by the Legislature.

House Democrats and some moderate Republicans dug in against that proposal, however, and it couldn’t muster the necessary two-thirds majority in the lower chamber. The measure passed the Senate.

Then, another proposed amendment surfaced. It would prohibit courts from shutting down schools because of a school finance case. That option remained in play Saturday evening. Unlike the school spending amendment, the school closing amendment had not been linked to passage of a school spending plan.

If either proposed amendment got the needed two-thirds majority in the House and Senate, it would not go to voters for at least 60 days.

The Senate and House have argued over whether to link ultimate passage of school funding plans to the school spending constitutional amendment. Lawmakers dubbed the linkage “the trigger clause.”

Democrats and Republican moderates were pushing a $160 million bipartisan plan, which Sebelius supports. The Senate approved it Thursday, but Mays shackled it in the House.

The impasse persisted all day Friday and into early Saturday. At 3:30 a.m. Saturday, Senate leaders gave in to House leadership demands for the trigger and agreed to a new $148.5 million school funding bill, which also was linked to the school spending amendment.

Operating on a few hours of sleep, the House began considering the $148.5 million school measure late Saturday afternoon.

Mays said he hoped that the pending hearing on Friday might make some lawmakers reconsider their opposition to the constitutional amendment.

Ron Keefover, a spokesman for the court, said the court was just following up on its earlier order. He wouldn’t speculate about what the court might do next.

“It depends mightily on what the Legislature does or doesn’t do,” he said.

SATURDAY’S DEVELOPMENTS:

–The Supreme Court announced that it will hear from both sides in the ongoing school finance case on Friday. If the court decides the Legislature has failed to act, it will stop the flow of funds to schools — effectively shutting them down.

–The Legislature adjourned until Wednesday after concluding the 11th day of its special session without a school funding plan.

–Many state representatives were still refusing to pass a school funding plan unless voters get to weigh in on a constitutional amendment that would stop the court from interfering with legislative spending.

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