KSNT: Kansas lawmakers mulling courts’ power amid funding fight
Kansas state Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, discusses education funding issues while Rep. Charles Macheers, R-Shawnee, watches during a joint meeting of the House and Senate judiciary committees, Friday, June 17, 2016, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Lawmakers are debating responses to a recent state Supreme Court ruling that the state’s education funding system remains unfair to poor school districts (AP Photo/John Hanna)
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Legislature’s attempt to build bipartisan support for a court-mandated increase in state aid to poor school districts stalled Friday as lawmakers from affluent Kansas City suburbs demanded assurances that their schools won’t lose money.
A joint meeting of the state House and Senate judiciary committees previewed a potentially intense sectional fight over education funding during a special legislative session that begins next week. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback summoned the GOP-dominated Legislature back to the Statehouse to address a state Supreme Court order last month.
