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Kansas schools consider new lawsuit against state
Published on -11/9/2009, 2:49 PM
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Thirty-six school districts have joined Schools for Fair Funding, the nonprofit coalition that started the lawsuit in 1999 to increase school funding. Those districts have nearly 130,000 students, which is almost a third of all students in Kansas.
The group won a landmark legal fight earlier this decade, culminating with the Kansas Supreme Court approving more than $460 million in new education spending over three years. But a recession has prompted the Legislature and Gov. Mark Parkinson to cut many of those new dollars from the classroom, kindling talk of a new lawsuit.
"Clearly, the Legislature is not following through on the commitments it has made," said Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards.
Superintendents are concerned that the reductions will start hurting student achievement and put a halt to academic progress.
"We are in about as difficult a situation as we have been in for quite a while," said Rick Doll, superintendent of the Lawrence school district, which has seen a reduction in its budget of nearly $3.5 million. "Future cuts are going to directly impact teachers, which impacts kids," he said, adding that the Lawrence board hasn't decided yet to join the coalition.
John Robb, an attorney who represents Schools for Fair Funding, said it's misleading to say the state is broke. He said legislators knew they would need additional revenue to keep their promise to schools, yet cut taxes instead.
"Between (fiscal years) 1995 and 2010 the Legislature has cut taxes to the tune of $1.1 billion per year from the revenue stream. Had these dozens of taxes not been cut, the state would have had more than $6 billion in reserves to help weather this storm," Robb said.
Kansas was forced during 2009 to reduce the base aid per student paid to districts from $4,433 to $4,218. Deeper cuts were prevented because of federal stimulus dollars sent to states. The State Board of Education has proposed a $280 million funding increase to reverse the trend and stay up with earlier financing commitments.
Parkinson said districts should wait before filing any lawsuits.
"With the revenues being this poor, I think any recipient of funds has to be understanding of the situation we're in," Parkinson said. "I'm encouraging all of our recipients of funds to be patient, to be willing to make sacrifices and to recognize the economy will turn around and revenues will improve and things will get better and suing each other in the meantime is probably not productive."
Nothing has been filed by the group with the courts to pressure the state yet.
However, the last lawsuit took more than six years before the courts ruled. A new lawsuit could take just as long.
Tallman said districts are nervous about finances and litigation may be the only means to pressure the Legislature. But he said the timing may not be right.
"What our message has been to our members is that anything in the area of litigation is likely to be a long process. Whatever you think of the merits of the case, it is probably not going to do much for you in the short term," he said.
10 comment(s) found
Coward:
11/11/2009To the person who claimed that we know nothing about the Dept of education. My wife is a teacher and mother in-law works for the Dept Education. I'll say it again, get rid of the greedy unions who protect teachers who are just there for a paycheck and throw out the illegals!!!I What is so hard for you liberals to understand that. People don't like paying taxes for illegals. Round them up and send them out.
(Posted by: Tim)
: 11/10/2009
apparently, the comments all come from those who have never worked for a school district. thanks for your ignorant comments
(Posted by: )
School: 11/10/2009
Start combining schools and reduce the Admin cost, kick out illegals, and get rid of the teachers Union. This would be a great start. Western Kansas need to get with the rest of the State.
(Posted by: Tim)
Crazy: 11/10/2009
How many years did the last lawsuit take to be resolved? From what I've read it was 6 years. Maybe instead of using all that money towards a lawsuit the school use it towards classrooms right now. Maybe we shouldn't be paying for the HS Principal to work on his Doctorate Degree. This would help the school get through the tough times.
(Posted by: Concerned)
: 11/10/2009
Lets get one thing straight. Without properly founded education we, as a nation, can not compete with other countries. Computers are important! Look what century we are in...it is the computer age. If we don't use computers, we will fall behind the rest of the world. Our state legislature says we are lacking funds. Why don't they adjust their funding instead taking from every other department. Look big picture, if fail in education we fail everywhere. An uneducated population is easy to control, maybe that is their goal!
(Posted by: )
Enough is Enough: 11/10/2009
It't time to take the cuts like the rest of the tax payers have done. Fact is the Admin. will think they never have enough, the more we give them the more they well want
(Posted by: )
wrong wrong wrong: 11/10/2009
schools don't know how to spend money on anything but junk and admin. there doesn't need to be one computer in the whole school and the students will learn 3 times more than they are now. Computers don't teach, teachers do people...
(Posted by: ct9)
Money, money, money! : 11/9/2009
Gee, I got an idea....why not buy every student a laptop computer, free lunches, free lunch is right! Me I wouldn't trust the state on anything they have to say.
(Posted by: Free lunch ride)
School Funding: 11/9/2009
The tax payers should not be subjected to a never ending tax increase. When you use our dollars to file the suite.
(Posted by: gary)
Paying Our Union Dues: 11/9/2009
This is what this lawsuit amounts to. Taxpayers paying lawyers for the greedy benefits & wages of the school union employees. Wise up USD 489 school board members!
(Posted by: Dues paying taxpayer)
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