Topeka ? Democratic gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Sebelius on Monday said she would increase funding to public schools by about $400 million in a three-year period  and that she would get the money without a tax increase.

In response to a question about how she would fund expenses associated with the new federal No Child Left Behind Act, the Sebelius campaign said the candidate wanted to increase funding for schools to match what was called for by a recent state study.

That study, by the Denver-based consulting firm of Augenblick and Myers, was supposed to determine what it would cost to provide a “suitable” education for Kansas children. The study recommended an additional $390 million be spent to increase the base state aid per pupil to $4,650 from $3,870. Gov. Bill Graves recently cut the base state aid per pupil to $3,863.

Educators said the study showed Kansas schools were underfunded, but many lawmakers said the funding goal was unrealistic given the state’s fiscal crunch.

But Sebelius “would start with the suitability study, and it would be a three-year phase-in,” said Sebelius spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran-Basso. “That’s the place we need to start. That’s what our plan is.”

Corcoran-Basso said the funds to increase school finance would come from savings found in an audit of the state government’s $4.4 billion budget, including the possibility of reducing administrative expenses and waste in education funding.

“We need to know what we are paying for and what is out there. We’re not talking about taxes,” she said.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Shallenburger has said public schools could sustain a cut of as much as $69 million if the alternative were a tax increase. More recently, he has said he would not cut financing for public schools.