Federal School Funding Lawsuit Against Kansas Dismissed

A federal lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of the Kansas school-funding system has been dismissed.

The lawsuit was filed in 2010 by a group of parents and students in the Shawnee Mission school district. It had argued that limits imposed by state law on local authority to raise and spend money on local schools violate the U.S. Constitution.
Attorney General Derek Schmidt said the plaintiffs dismissed their lawsuit after two appeals to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver and an unsuccessful attempt to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their cause.

“We have successfully defended Kansas law against this challenge in federal court,” Schmidt said.

The federal lawsuit dismissed in July was Petrella v. Brownback. A separate state-law challenge to Kansas school-finance law, Gannon v. Kansas, remains pending in the Kansas Supreme Court with oral arguments scheduled for Sept. 21.