Schmidt Asks Court To Dismiss School-Bill Lawsuit

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt today asked a state court to end a lawsuit challenging the school-funding law enacted in April by the Legislature.

Schmidt filed the motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed in August by the Kansas National Education Association (KNEA), in Shawnee County District Court in Topeka. The filing is the State’s first formal response to the lawsuit.

"At its core, KNEA disagrees with the Legislature’s policy choice to amend the Kansas statutes regarding teacher dismissal and termination of teacher contracts," Schmidt wrote in his filing. "Rather than attack that issue directly, the KNEA raises an abstract challenge to the process by which the Legislature enacted the law."

Schmidt argues that the KNEA lacks standing to challenge the law, that no actual controversy has yet arisen under the new law, and that the education bill enacted by the Legislature complies with the state Constitution’s requirement that each bill contain only a single subject.

Allowing the lawsuit to proceed, Schmidt argues, could put in jeopardy more than $134 million in K-12 spending that was provided by the new law. That spending is being used in schools throughout Kansas during the current school year.

The case is Kansas National Education Association v. State of Kansas, et al., in the District Court of Shawnee County, Kansas, Case No. 2014-CV-789.