Topeka ? Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on Friday wouldn’t rule out a special legislative session to deal with school funding, and the judge who has declared the school finance system unconstitutional has told officials to start preparing a remedy.

But Republicans leaders said the Legislature would not overhaul the method of financing public schools until the case had been ruled on by the Kansas Supreme Court.

“I don’t think the Legislature can fully address this question until there is finality in this case,” said House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka.

In December, Shawnee County District Court Judge Terry Bullock ruled the school finance system unconstitutional because it provided an inadequate amount of funding to all students, especially shortchanging schools with high minority enrollment. He gave lawmakers until July 1 to fix it.

Sebelius, a Democrat, has proposed an increase in state sales, income and property taxes to provide a $304 million increase for schools in the next three years.

The package, however, is not expected to survive the Republican-dominated Legislature. Mays has said the tax increases would wreck the economy.

Sebelius disagreed Friday.

“For the Legislature to do nothing — knowing that we have not adequately met the needs of school districts across this state — abdicates our responsibility, puts the burden back on local districts, is a disservice to our children, and I think in the long run can be the most detrimental thing to an economic recovery. It is really the worst of all worlds,” she said.

Asked if she would call the Legislature into a special session on school finance, Sebelius said she would consider all options. There have only been 20 special sessions in Kansas’ history, the last one occurring in 1989 to consider property tax relief.

Seeking an appeal

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Mays indicated he was “certain” the state Supreme Court would act quickly on the school finance case after a bill is approved that allows the Legislature to appeal Bullock’s “interim order” before the July 1 deadline.

Meanwhile, Bullock has notified attorneys in the school finance case to provide legal briefs to him on similar lawsuits in other states, including Arkansas, New York, New Jersey and North Carolina.

In a letter Tuesday to the attorneys, Bullock said: “When these cases are coupled with the ones previously cited and relied upon by the Court, there is no doubt there is a strong legal trend throughout our nation to require equity of education funding and to base that funding on actual costs, not just fictitious calculations, prior expenditures, or political compromises.”

Bullock told attorneys representing the school districts that won the case to provide legal briefs by March 1; the state will be given until April 1 to reply. He said if there was no response or inadequate response “the matter of the ultimate remedy will be before us.”

Republicans want a lawyer

In another development, Republican legislative leaders said they wanted to spend up to $100,000 to retain legal counsel and other experts “to ensure that the Legislature’s perspective is considered as part of the school finance proceedings.”

Democratic legislators blasted the proposal as a delaying tactic in the case and an unnecessary expense. The private law firm of Lathrop & Gage already has been paid more than $100,000 to represent the state during the school finance trial, according to the attorney general’s office.

State Sen. Christine Downey, D-Inman, said the proposal was the equivalent of saying, “We’re going to find a doctor who will tell us what we want to hear.”

State Sen. Steve Morris, a Republican from Hugoton, however, said hiring an attorney for the Legislature was necessary because the school finance litigation could affect budgeting and taxes “perhaps for at least the next decade.”

Sebelius was cool to the idea.

“It’s a curious time to hire an attorney. I don’t quite know what a new attorney at this point would do or add to the process,” she said.