TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court says it will decide by Sept. 21 whether a suburban Kansas City-area school district can intervene in a lawsuit against the state over school funding.
The court issued an order Monday setting a schedule for deciding how much the Shawnee Mission district participates in the lawsuit.
A three-judge Shawnee County District Court panel has invalidated parts of an education funding law enacted this year and declared that the state must spend at least $548 million more a year on its public schools. The state has appealed.
The lawsuit from school districts in Dodge City, Hutchinson, Wichita and Kansas City, Kansas, was filed in 2010. Shawnee Mission argues that the four other districts can’t represent its interests.
But the lower-court panel denied Shawnee Mission’s request to intervene.