The Kansas Supreme Court is ending its oversight of school funding in Kansas. In a ruling on Tuesday, February 6th, the state’s highest court says it had fulfilled its obligation to oversee phased-in increases to school funding required by the years-long case, Gannon v. State. The court also denied the state’s motion to file an Amicus Brief. Governor Laura Kellys says the legislature must not take this ruling as license to cut funding from our public schools and crush an entire generation of Kansas students. She says the schools have made so much progress over the past five years because Kansas has fully funded K-12 education, and the students can’t afford to turn back the clock – not back to tax experiments funded by school budget cuts, to 4-day school weeks, or to costly lawsuits.
She says she is committed to standing against any and all attempts to strip the schools of the funding they need to prepare students for success.
Justice Rosen was the only dissent in Tuesday’s ruling, citing the legislative history of cutting school funding when not required by the court.
