School finance countdown

50 days: The state Supreme Court has given lawmakers until April 12 to produce a constitutional school finance plan.

MONDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS

The Kansas Senate rejected abolishing the death penalty, 22-18, and rejected fixing the statute to comply with a Kansas Supreme Court finding that the law was unconstitutional. The state is seeking an appeal of that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

• An audit into the state’s privatized adoption system found there were unreasonable delays in adoption in some cases but discounted the notion that contractors were holding up “slam-dunk adoptions” because payments for these children were needed to offset the expenses of children who were less likely to be adopted.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It took politics off the 50-yard line.”

— Retired Kansas Supreme Court Justice Fred Six on the current system of merit selection of justices.

TODAY’s SCHEDULE

1:30 p.m.: House Federal and State Affairs hearing on House Bill 2300, which is the “Unborn Victims of Violence Act.”

3:30 p.m.: House Governmental Organization and Elections hearing on HCR 5006, a constitutional amendment providing access to public records and public meetings.