Court gives legislature until June 30 to fix school funding

The Kansas Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday that the Kansas “block grant” system that was to temporarily replace the school finance formula is unconstitutional. The Court retained jurisdiction of the case and is giving the Kansas Legislature until June 30 to pass something constitutional.

In its ruling, the Court says about a fourth of all students are not being properly educated:

“Plaintiffs have shown through the evidence from trial-and through updated results on standardized testing since then-that not only is the State failing to provide approximately one-fourth of all its public school K-12 students with the basic skills of both reading and math, but that it is also leaving behind significant groups of harder-to-educate students.”

The Court did not give the legislature a dollar amount that must be spent on K-12. There is speculation the Legislature could return to a form of the old formula and boost spending on at-risk students as a quick way to appease the justices.

The number most mentioned comes from the Kansas Department of Education, where Deputy Commissioner Dale Dennis was saying before the decision he thought it would take about $520 million.

The ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court that Kansas’ block grant system for public education is unconstitutional is no surprise and has been widely expected for months. The block grants limited public school spending by the state and were a thinly veiled attempt to protect the 2012 income tax cuts by reducing the pressure to repeal them.

Having closely watched the new 2017 Kansas Legislature, it’s clear a strong bi-partisan majority of lawmakers understand the damage done by the income tax cuts because they passed legislation to reverse them. Unfortunately, that legislation was vetoed by Governor Brownback.

It’s also clear a strong bi-partisan majority support public education and will do what’s necessary to follow the Court’s ruling and correct the funding structure, although that will be a difficult process.

Here’s a link to the 83-page decision:

What now on school finance?

Although there have been some hearings on bills introduced to deal with a new school finance formula, none have passed out of committees. Key committees have been mainly studying the problem and may have been waiting for the direction of the Kansas Supreme Court before proceeding.

Activity is expected to speed up almost immediately when lawmakers return to the Statehouse Monday after a nine day mid-session break.

Ruling means more pressure to raise income taxes

The ruling puts pressure on legislators to come up with more revenue, particularly efforts to revisit income tax increases following Governor Brownback’s veto of House Bill 2178, which would have provided $590 million to the state for Fiscal Year 2018.

The House overrode the veto 85 to 40 (84 are needed to override a veto).

The Senate voted 24 to 16, three votes short of the 27 needed to override.

Here’s what was in the bill:

  • The business tax exemption is eliminated
  • A third tax bracket is added of 5.45 percent. It applies to single taxpayers that make more than $50,000 and married taxpayers that make more than $100,000
  • The bill is retroactive to January 1 of this year
  • Medical deductions (which were eliminated previously) are restored at 100 percent
  • The so-called March to Zero trigger mechanism that lowers income taxes in the future is eliminated

One possible path is to re-introduce the measure and see if three more votes can be picked up in the Senate with the knowledge that the Supreme Court has given the legislature a deadline.

Another path is to tweak the legislation to pick up three Senate votes and hope that the rest of the votes in the Senate and House will hold up under another veto.

In a statement reacting to the ruling, Governor Brownback says in part, “The Kansas Supreme Court correctly observes that our education system has failed to provide a suitable education for the lowest performing 25 percent of students. The old funding formula failed our students, particularly those that struggle most.”

That statement is misleading. The Supreme Court was talking about the failure of the Governor’s block grant system, not the old funding formula.

Here is Governor Sam Brownback’s complete statement reacting to the ruling:

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Bill tracker

Below is a listing of the bills we are tracking for the educator members of the Kansas Counseling Association. You can click on the bill number for more information. It will take you to the Kansas Legislature’s web site, where you can read information on the bill.

Many bills will have a Supplemental Note or Fiscal Note. Click on SN or FN to get information in layman’s terms.

Bill Number
and Sponsor / Bill Subject / Current Status / Last Action
SB 138
Senate Ways and Means Committee / Exempting KPERS licensed school retirants from the working after retirement earnings limitation / In Senate Financial Institutions and Insurance / 02/02/2017 - Senate
Referred to Financial Institutions and Insurance
SB 146
Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee / Continuation of 20 mill statewide levy for schools and property tax exemption of certain portion of property used for residential purposes from such levy / In Senate Assessment and Taxation / 02/03/2017 - Senate
Referred to Assessment and Taxation
SB 205
Senate Ways and Means Committee / Allowing certain time away from work or normal duties to be credited as participating service under KPERS and KP&F / In Senate Financial Institutions and Insurance / 02/21/2017 - Senate
Referred to Financial Institutions and Insurance
SB 213
Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee / Providing for state income taxation of retirement contributions by certain employees of the state board of regents / In Senate Assessment and Taxation / 03/06/2017 - Senate
Referred to Assessment and Taxation
HB 2048
House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee / School district plan addressing child sexual abuse; establishing Erin's law / In Senate Education / 02/15/2017 - Senate
Referred to Education
HB 2078
House Education Committee / Authorizing the reduction or elimination of property tax exemption by a school district / In House Education / 01/20/2017 - House
Scheduled Hearing in Education: Wednesday, 1/25, 3:30 PM, Rm 546-S
HB 2113
House Appropriations Committee / Permanently exempting postsecondary educational institutions from the public buildings law under the personal and family protection act / In House Appropriations / 01/20/2017 - House
Referred to Appropriations
HB 2138
House Local Government Committee / State fire marshal; school lockdowns; rules and regulations / In House Local Government / 01/25/2017 - House
Referred to Local Government
HB 2142
House K-12 Education Budget Committee / Establishing a unified school district employee health care benefits program / In House K-12 Education Budget / 02/15/2017 - House
Withdrawn from Appropriations; rereferred to K-12 Education Budget
HB 2165
House Education Committee / Development and implementation of ethnic studies in schools / In House Education / 01/26/2017 - House
Referred to Education
HB 2171
House Federal and State Affairs Committee / Student privacy and protection act / In House Federal and State Affairs / 01/27/2017 - House
Referred to Federal and State Affairs
HB 2179
Steven G. Crum, D-98th / Due process for terminating teachers' contracts / In House Education / 02/21/2017 - House
Motion pending to withdraw from Committee and place on General Orders; Motion withdrawn
HB 2186
House Judiciary Committee / Enacting the uniform arbitration act of 2000 / In Senate Judiciary / 02/23/2017 - Senate
Referred to Judiciary
HB 2242
House K-12 Education Budget Committee / Enacting the classroom-based funding act / In House K-12 Education Budget / 02/15/2017 - House
Withdrawn from Appropriations; rereferred to K-12 Education Budget
HB 2243
House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee / Authorizing school security officers to use certain types of emergency safety interventions / In House Corrections and Juvenile Justice / 02/02/2017 - House
Scheduled Hearing in Corrections and Juvenile Justice: Monday, 2/6, 1:30 PM, Rm 152-S
HB 2268
House Financial Institutions and Pensions Committee / Extending the sunset date on certain working after retirement exemptions / In Senate Financial Institutions and Insurance / 02/23/2017 - Senate
Referred to Financial Institutions and Insurance
HB 2270
House K-12 Education Budget Committee / Creating the education finance act / In House K-12 Education Budget / 02/15/2017 - House
Withdrawn from Appropriations; rereferred to K-12 Education Budget
HB 2324
House Appropriations Committee / School district finance and quality performance act of 2017 / In House K-12 Education Budget / 02/15/2017 - House
Withdrawn from Appropriations; rereferred to K-12 Education Budget
HB 2360
House Appropriations Committee / Establishing the division of the state employee health benefits plan in the department of administration / In House Appropriations / 02/14/2017 - House
Referred to Appropriations
HB 2374
House Taxation Committee / Expanding the tax credit for low income students scholarship program / In House K-12 Education Budget / 03/06/2017 - House
Referred to K-12 Education Budget

Bernie Koch Government Relations