A.G. appeals school order

'No legitimate reason' for Tuesday's action, Kline says in filing

? Attorneys for the state asked the Kansas Supreme Court on Wednesday to block a district judge’s order that public schools must close beginning June 30 unless legislators revise the education funding system.

The request was in response to Tuesday’s final order issued by Shawnee County District Judge Terry Bullock, who said Kansas needed to fix what he had identified as unconstitutional flaws in the state’s school finance formula.

Attorneys representing the state called Bullock’s order “disruptive and damaging” to the public school system.

“There is absolutely no legitimate reason why such an order must be entered before this court reviews the interim order,” the attorneys wrote.

The Supreme Court will consider whether to grant the stay within two weeks, said court spokesman Ron Keefover.

Whitney Watson, spokesman for Atty. Gen. Phill Kline, said the request for a stay of Bullock’s order would be followed by an appeal of the final ruling. The Kansas Supreme Court is expected to hear the appeal in September.

A December ruling from Bullock that the existing school finance system is “inadequate and inequitable” and therefore unconstitutional already has been appealed to the state Supreme Court.

In his ruling Tuesday, Bullock indicated he would order state and local officials to “cease and desist the expenditure of funds” for public elementary and secondary schools after June 30. The judge’s actions would not affect schools’ current academic year.

Attorneys said a stay would preserve the integrity of an earlier appeal filed in March, challenging Bullock’s December order. Allowing Bullock’s remedy to take effect would alter the facts of the case, the attorneys said.

“For reasons which are wholly unexpressed in the remedy order, the district court has decided that, in a case that has been pending since 1999, it is somehow impossible to wait a few weeks until this matter can be submitted to the Kansas Supreme Court,” attorneys wrote.

Bullock’s decision came three days after legislators adjourned the 2004 session without acting on his December order to fix the state’s school finance system.

Bullock issued that preliminary ruling in a 1999 lawsuit brought by parents and administrators in the Dodge City and Salina school districts. He concluded that the state’s system for distributing $2.77 billion in state aid was unconstitutional partly because of how it distributes money to programs for poor and minority students.

He also found the existing level of funding to be inadequate because the Kansas Constitution requires “suitable provision” for funding schools.

Bullock wanted legislators to change the system during their 2004 session, setting a deadline of July 1 to make his order final. Legislators responded by passing a law allowing the state to immediately appeal the preliminary order to the Kansas Supreme Court.