Topeka ? Kansas’ school finance system is fair, a professor testified Tuesday in the trial of a lawsuit challenging that system.

Lawrence Picus, professor of school finance at the University of Southern California, was the first witness called in Shawnee County District Court in defense of how Kansas distributes money to its schools. The state expects to spend $2.6 billion under its current budget.

Picus said the state’s spending was adequate, especially considering the authority of Kansas’ 302 school districts, which can exceed their state-set budgets by 25 percent by levying additional local property taxes.

As districts use such authority, Picus said, “The more equity increases across the districts.”

The lawsuit was filed in 1999 in Shawnee County District Court on behalf of parents and school administrators in Salina and Dodge City. The plaintiffs hope to persuade Judge Terry Bullock that the state neither spends enough money on its schools nor distributes fairly what it does spend.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit rested their case Monday after testimony from Salina Superintendent of Schools Gary Norris and Bruce Baker, an associate professor of teaching and leadership at the Kansas University.

Dan Biles, an attorney for the State Board of Education, has said the state would need only a few days to present its case. Picus’ testimony is designed to refute testimony offered by Baker and other plaintiffs’ witnesses.

A 2002 study conducted by a Denver consulting firm, Augenblick & Myers, said the 1992 school finance law ignored the needs of large and mid-size districts.

Salina is one of those mid-size districts.