Lawyers for a coalition of 74 Kansas school districts asked the state Supreme Court on Monday to reopen a 2006 ruling on funding of public schools to determine if the law and spending cuts are constitutional.
Attorneys John Robb and Alan Rupe filed paperwork with the court for the group Schools for Fair Funding, which represents some 168,000 Kansas students. The attorneys said the state has “has chronically rebuked its school funding responsibilities.”
“It has acted in defiance of its own laws, this court’s decisions and the Kansas Constitution,” the attorneys wrote.
The filing asks the court to determine the constitutionality of the current school finance system and of cuts in state aid to districts during the past year. The filing comes on the same day of the opening of the 2010 legislative session.
Sen. John Vratil, a Leawood Republican and an attorney involved in earlier school finance litigation in the 1990s, predicted the Supreme Court will dismiss the petition. He said the Supreme Court isn’t equipped to gather evidence and is likely to conclude district court is the proper place for the latest challenge to start.
But Rep. Marti Crow, a Leavenworth Democrat who’s also an attorney, predicted the high court would hear the case because it has ruled previously.
