Kansas residents breathed a collective sigh of relief last month after the Supreme Court agreed to not shut down the Kansas public school system.
The high court had threatened to close all public schools in the state until the Kansas Legislature agreed to a fairer funding system that didn’t favor wealthy school districts. But now, as KMBC reports,the state’s school funding system is headed back to court again. And Kansas is asking the state Supreme Court not to threaten to shutter the schools again.
State lawyers argued that the court shouldn’t name a shutdown as a possible remedy. Instead, they said the Kansas Legislature should be given an opportunity during next year’s session to work it out. State funding for schools has been diminishing since Governor Sam Brownback’s controversial tax policies were enacted. School districts have said that reducing funding to education “negatively impacts student achievement and performance.”