It may seem strange that USD 253 Assistant Superintendent for Business Operations Rob Scheib would say he’s “excited” after the state’s longstanding education funding situation wasn’t resolved Monday when the Kansas Supreme Court said funding was inadequate. But there are several reasons why Scheib is optimistic about the direction of education funding after Monday’s ruling.
Part of Scheib’s optimism is the court’s thoughts on so-called mandatory transfers, which will remain in place.
The new package gives the district another $1.1 million for the general fund and another $350,000 for special education weighting.
In addition, Scheib is glad the court wants lawmakers to start an inflationary trigger at the start of the new funding package, not several years down the road. He tells KVOE News having inflationary dollars as extra dollars, rather than part of the annual increase, will add another $80 million for needed work and projects — especially with a big statewide initiative getting started.
Scheib also says he was grateful the Supreme Court gave lawmakers until next June to make changes instead of demanding a special session and shutting down schools next week.
As far as concerns with the ruling, Scheib says the court did not address certain studies that said lawmakers were still well short on the amount of money needed to fully fund education. Earlier this year, the Legislature approved a better than $500-million plan over five years, although a state-funded study from the 2018 session said as much as $2.1 billion was actually needed.
The issue has triggered concerns from some lawmakers that perhaps the courts should be taken out of the adequacy decision altogether. 51st District Representative Ron Highland of Wamego believes the court should be involved in determining equity, but not adequacy. He believes a constitutional amendment taking the court out of that decision making could be coming during the next session.
60th District Representative Mark Schreiber of Emporia says he wouldn’t be surprised if a constitutional amendment is proposed, but says he doesn’t agree it’s necessary in this case.
Schreiber says he believes the legislature has started down the right path and is close to resolving the issue of funding schools.
But 76th District Representative Eric Smith of Burlington disagrees and says the state is relying on the economy to continue to improve to fund the bill but says if it doesn’t there will be no other recourse but to borrow revenues elsewhere.
Smith says he also believes a constitutional amendment may be necessary to keep the court out of the adequacy argument over funding education.
Click here for Monday’s reactions from Highland and Senate Vice President Jeff Longbine of Emporia.
