Topeka ? Top Republican legislators met privately this week to vent anger at the Kansas Supreme Court over its school funding order, and to develop a strategy to fight it.

The meeting occurred Tuesday evening in Wichita and was coordinated by Rep. Brenda Landwehr, a Wichita Republican.

She said somewhere between 30 and 50 Republican legislators met, including House Speaker Doug Mays of Topeka, House Majority Leader Clay Aurand of Courtland and Rep. Mike O’Neal of Hutchinson, who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

“This is no longer about money and education,” Landwehr said. “It is about the separation of powers.”

Landwehr said the meeting was by invitation-only to Republicans, who hold substantial majorities in the Legislature.

Last week, the Kansas Supreme Court rejected a Republican plan to increase school funding by $142 million, and to allow local school districts to increase property taxes.

The court sided with a cost of education study that calls for an increase of $853 million – $285 million by July 1, and possibly the remainder by next year. The court also rejected further increases in local property taxes, saying it would widen the gap between rich and poor districts.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has said she would call lawmakers back into a special legislative session on June 22 to address the court ruling.

Some Republicans have said that the court overstepped its authority in telling the Legislature how much to spend. Some GOP lawmakers stated they would defy the court decision, even if it meant going to jail.

Mays, who has announced he will run for governor in 2006, declined to tell his caucus what to do, his spokesman Rachelle Columbo said.

“Every legislator has a sovereign vote. He will let them each voice their opinion on this and will let it stand,” she said.

Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka said the meeting of Republicans in Wichita didn’t bother him, but that he felt GOP lawmakers were trying to make a “scapegoat” of the Kansas Supreme Court.

“I am concerned with the vitriolic, strident rhetoric by the Republicans against the court,” Hensley said. “That is totally inappropriate.”

He defended the court’s unanimous decision, saying the six justices took a reasoned approach by telling the Legislature to implement for now one-third of the school funding identified as needed by the Legislature’s own cost study done in 2001.

He said if Republicans “want to play chicken with the court, so be it. But it’s certainly not responsible.”

Landwehr said the upset lawmakers reached no conclusion on what they will do during the special legislative session.

She said Sebelius, a Democrat, needs to propose a school funding plan.

“She needs to either lead or resign her job,” Landwehr said.

Sebelius has said she is willing to work with legislators, but she has not indicated whether she will propose a plan in response to the court decision.