Topeka ? The ongoing public school cost-study will undoubtedly be the most sought-after report in years.

Due to be finished in January, it could affect the quality of schools and the level of taxes in Kansas for years to come.

But a legislative committee Wednesday decided it will get the crucial report before anyone else.

In a unanimous vote, the Legislative Post Audit Committee directed its staff to give committee members copies of the cost study seven days before its public release.

“It’s going to be the major piece of work for the year, and everyone in this building is going to be very interested in it,” said Committee Chairman John Edmonds, R-Great Bend.

But Edmonds said the committee needed to control leaks of the report. “I don’t think we want to put 100, 150 copies out in the building,” he said.

State Sen. Chris Steineger, D-Kansas City, agreed. “We need to rein this in,” he said.

The study is expected to be a key part of the school finance debate in the 2006 legislative session.

Earlier this year, the Legislature increased school funding by $290 million in response to Kansas Supreme Court rulings that said the school finance system was unconstitutional because it did not provide adequate funding. The court has told lawmakers to study the costs of education, and said it may order further increases next year in the $3 billion system.

Customarily, audits done for the committee are given to committee members and officials in agencies being audited seven days prior to public release. The audits also are circulated to any legislator who requests a copy.

But the education cost-study is not an audit. Still, committee members said they believed they should get copies earlier than the public, and said they didn’t want to give early copies of the study to any legislator outside the committee.