School Funding Fight Far From Over

The Kansas Supreme Court has settled some immediate issues over public school funding in the state, but it left until another day the biggest issue — how much more money legislators must spend on education.

While the court identified two areas of inequity that needed as much as $129 million in immediate funding to remedy, determining whether the state’s entire education budget of more than $3 billion annually is adequate will take longer.

Plaintiffs read the court’s ruling as a validation that Kansas education funding is woefully inadequate. Republicans see it as affirming the Legislature’s role in setting spending levels when balancing all other priorities, but agree all districts should be treated equally.

Who is right will be determined in the coming months as more arguments are made in court.