Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly wanted a quick solution to the on-going school funding lawsuit, but lawmakers are leaving for a mid-session break without having approved a plan.
They have until April 15 to agree on how much they want to spend on education and submit arguments for their plan to the Kansas Supreme Court.
The top Democrat in the House, Rep. Tom Sawyer, is frustrated with the pace of progress.
“We’ve got a lawsuit sitting there,” he said. “We’ve got to solve funding for our schools and we haven’t even started working on that.”
Majority Leader Dan Hawkins takes a different view. He’s satisfied with the progress, even if they haven’t yet produced a funding proposal.
“A lot of times people don’t think that things are moving along when it takes time to put some of those things together and put them together right,” Hawkins said.
Conversations over what to do about school funding are happening.
Majority Leader Jim Denning mentioned on the Senate floor that leaders met this week with the attorney general. Based on that, Denning says lawmakers will produce a plan that accounts for inflation with $90 million per year.
Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio, a partner in the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to the original post. To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.
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