TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A district court panel in Kansas has declared that key parts of a new state law for funding public schools violate the state constitution.
The three-judge panel in Shawnee County District Court ruled Friday that the law fails to distribute more than $4 billion a year so that all children receive a suitable education.
The state is expected to appeal the ruling to the Kansas Supreme Court.
The new law scrapped an older per-pupil distribution formula in favor of predictable grants to the state’s 286 school districts based on the funds they received before the law changed.
An attorney for four Kansas school districts says they and their students won a big victory when a court ruled that key parts of a new state education funding law are unconstitutional.
Lawyer John Robb also said the decision Friday by the three-judge panel in Shawnee County District Court appears to require the state to provide an additional $54 million in aid to districts immediately.
Top Republicans in the GOP-dominated Legislature were reviewing the order Friday afternoon. Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce called the decision “overwhelming” because of its complexity.
The law junked the state’s old per-student formula for distributing aid its 286 districts in favor of predictable annual grants.
Robb represents the Hutchinson, Dodge City, Wichita and Kansas City, Kansas, districts. They sued the state in 2010.