A federal judge has ordered Atty. Gen. Phill Kline’s office to participate in mediation talks in a lawsuit that challenges the way Kansas funds public schools.

Kline had asked to be excused from mandatory mediation, saying the talks would have been “unfruitful,” delayed the case and forced the state to concede its school funding method was unconstitutional.

But U.S. Magistrate Karen Humphreys, of Wichita, said that participation in mediation “serves a useful purpose: an exchange of positions and discussion of possible remedies by all parties.” The order was issued Tuesday; the meeting before a court-appointed mediator is scheduled for May 28.

In response to the order, Kline said the state’s school finance law was constitutional.

“We are prepared for trial,” he said.

The lawsuit alleges the state’s school finance formula discriminates against minority students because it provides extra funding to small school districts that are mostly white. A similar challenge to the Kansas funding law also is pending in state court.

In the federal lawsuit, plaintiffs have offered to settle the case if the state will enact a state consultant’s report that recommended an increase in overall school funding and specific increases in funding directed to help at-risk students and bilingual students.

Mediation was ordered between the parties in the case to consider settlement offers.

Kline sought to remove his office from the mediation, arguing in a legal brief that the settlement offer was not made in good faith because implementation of the consultant’s report wouldn’t address the constitutional problems that the minority students allege.

He also argued that mediation would further delay the case, which has been pending for four years, and would not produce an agreement.

Alan Rupe, an attorney representing the minority students, said much of the delay in the case was due to legal motions filed by the state and that mediation would have little value without the participation of all parties in the case.

In ordering the mediation conference, Humphreys said all the parties in the case “are expected to be completely candid with the mediator so that he may properly guide settlement discussions.”

If the case is not settled, none of the discussions during the conference can be used during a trial or communicated to the judge, according to the order.