It appears a constitutional amendment bill designed to end the cycle of school lawsuits in Kansas has stalled for now. After several Senators changed their votes and a call of the Kansas Senate was rescinded, 21 Senators voted passed a school funding bill that would add approximately $274 million in new spending to public schools over the next five years.
The Kansas House previously approved legislation to add $525 million in new school spending over the next five years, and now a conference committee of lawmakers from both chambers will work out the differences.
Sen. Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said newspapers and some lawmakers peddle misinformation when they say that money alone makes the difference in educational outcomes.
“Money matters, but it only matters if you spent it on the right thing,” Masterson said. “It’s about what it’s spent on.”
Democratic Senators voted against the measure. Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley called the Senate’s bill inadequate.
“I don’t think this bill meets constitutional muster,” Hensley said. “…I do not believe it will meet or comply with the Court order in the Gannon case.”
The Senate’s proposal adds $29 million in additional funding to base state aid per pupil next year, and then by $76 million to $82 million in each of the next four years. The proposal also shifts money that was once divvied to schools based on low and high enrollment to base state aid, making the first year’s base number appear larger.
Hensley called that dollar shift “hocus-pocus,” but Senate Education Committee Chair Molly Baumgardner said it just makes sense to move that money to the base state aid column, because every district receives a weighting for low or high enrollment.
“We are not pretending this is new money or different money,” she said.
In the lawsuit, Kansas schools are seeking a $700 million increase in funding, followed by another $400 million increase later on, and then eight more years of $100 million increases.
Lawmakers face a Kansas Supreme Court imposed April 30th deadline to draft a new school financing formula. The Court didn’t say how it would respond if lawmakers failed, but Justices have threatened to close schools in previous school financing rulings.
Source: sentinelksmo.org
