TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas’ highest court is wrestling with whether a new public school funding law with bipartisan support provides enough additional money to ensure that the state’s spending on education is sufficient.
State Supreme Court justices had pointed questions Thursday during a hearing for both the state’s attorney and a lawyer representing four local school districts that sued Kansas in 2010. A law enacted last month increases education funding by roughly $90 million a year.
The state argues that this year’s increase after others in recent years means the annual $4 billion-plus in funding satisfies the Kansas Constitution.
The court declared last year that a 2018 law promising funding increases wasn’t sufficient because it hadn’t accounted for inflation.
The school districts contend the state got the inflation calculation wrong and shorted schools.
