After receiving threats from the Supreme Court, the Kansas legislature republican majorities raced to approve the new plan. The new plan will follow to reshuffle the education spending done before the end of June.
According to KCTV5, the Supreme Court's threat to shut down public schools statewide proved to be a good warning after the lawmakers did rush their works. The Senate approved the bill in 32 - 5 and the House passed the bill after few hours with 93 - 31. The bill is sent to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback who is expected to sign it. The votes only came two days after the bill was introduced to the House and Senate, and the GOP leaders took special methods to ensure its movement.
Republican leaders made it quickly to allow the court plenty of time to review the plan before the June 30 deadline as reported by ABC News. Last month, the justices have ruled that a 2015 finance law denied poor districts their fair share of the $4 billion annual aid to the 286 locals. "The court has the hammer to close down schools," as said by Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ty Masterson. However, four school districts are planning to sue the state since it has been promised that no district loses any aid, they'll see no change in their aid overall too. The four districts have argued that the state isn't spending enough money overall on its schools but the Supreme Court will review that argument.
WTOP reported that John Robb said: "This is a thinly veiled attempt to move money from the left pocket to the right pocket." He added that he's predicting that the court will reject the proposal. Due to his prediction, Democratic Rep. Jim Ward accuse the Republicans of "playing Russian roulette with their schools" as they pass the plan to Supreme Court. However, John Whitmer has suggested that Democrats had no proposals and led to a heated conversation between the two parties.
Top Republicans have questioned that though the plan largely reshuffles the funds, it still would be fair and can eradicate the gap between local property taxes that stands among wealthy and poor districts. GOP lawmakers junked last year's formula as it makes the funding more predictable where the state is struggling to balance the budget.
