What's Wrong With Public Education? Republicans Spend Far Too Little On Students, Kansas State Supreme Court Rules

Kansas's "block grant" public education funding system does not meet the needs of the state's students and was therefore unconstitutional, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The Court ordered state lawmakers to increase funding for public education but did not give a specific number for how large an increase must be to bring the state in compliance with its Constitution, which says that the legislature must "make suitable provision for finance of the educational interests of the state."

The amount of funding necessary to adequately fund schools could range from $432 million to $893 million, a lawyer representing the districts told the Wichita Eagle.

"The lawsuit wasn't about the [previous] formula being bad. The lawsuit was about how the formula wasn't funded," attorney John Robb said. "The court says kids aren't getting what they're due."

The ruling, which was unanimous, said that state lawmakers must fix the state's public education funding system by June 30.

The court's ruling was the latest blow to state efforts to fund education. In 2015, the court struck down a law that used a per-student formula for funding schools. In February, it ruled that poor school districts required more funding.

In 2011, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback took office and, in partnership with a Republican-controlled legislature, enacted a series of massive tax cuts, the largest in state history, that have decreased available funds for government spending. In 2015, six school districts closed early because of budget cuts, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

Thursday's ruling was the latest action in a case that began in 2010, when the Dodge City, Hutchinson, Wichita and Kansas City, Kansas, school districts filed a lawsuit against the state.

In deeply red Kansas, public schools have been viewed with some distrust by conservatives. Last year, the New York Times published a story on how the term conservatives had started using the term "government schools" to refer to public schools during the state's budget battles.

According to a 2016 analysis in Governing magazine, Kansas was ranked 29th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in per pupil spending for fiscal year 2014.