Topeka ? Facing one lawsuit and the possibility of another, a group that successfully sued the state to force massive funding increases for public schools made its financial records public Thursday.

Schools for Fair Funding Inc., a nonprofit group financed by 19 school districts, spent more than $2.9 million since 1998, the records showed, and more than three-quarters of it went to law firms. Alan Rupe, the group’s lead attorney, disclosed that he charged $190 an hour – 35 percent below his usual rate of $300.

The Topeka Capital-Journal sued the group last month in district court to obtain the documents, arguing that the group fell under the Kansas Open Records Act. Last week, Atty. Gen. Phill Kline demanded that the group turn over some of the records, citing a 2005 change in the records law requiring nonprofit groups to disclose how they received and spent anything more than $350 a year.

The group’s attorneys e-mailed summaries of the documents to reporters, then offered to make copies of 2,700 pages worth of detailed records available for $693, or 25 cents a page. Rupe said they also gave the attorney general’s office the same information going back to Jan. 1, when he said the law took effect.

While Rupe continued Thursday to argue that Schools for Fair Funding isn’t covered by the Open Records Act, he said the group released its records because the lawsuit and Kline’s demand – backed up by the threat of legal action by his office – were distracting it from its mission to improve education funding.

“We’ve got better things to do than fulfill that mission,” Rupe said. “We’ve accomplished a lot for Kansas kids and public schools.”

However, The Capital-Journal isn’t likely to drop its lawsuit just because the records have been released, attorney Mike Merriam said. The newspaper hopes the courts will declare that Schools for Fair Funding is a public agency because of how it is financed.

The newspaper filed its lawsuit in Butler County, believing the records were being kept in El Dorado. It has since learned that they are in Wichita, Merriam said.

“The lawsuit requests relief or a judgment that’s broader than the documents themselves,” Merriam said.

Kline spokesman Jan Lunsford said the attorney general’s office hadn’t received the group’s documents but was encouraged that it would release some of its records.

The attorney general last week sought records since July 1, 2005, but Rupe said the provision of the Open Records Act cited by Kline didn’t take effect until six months later.

Conservative Republican legislators have grumbled about school districts using tax dollars to finance a lawsuit to obtain more tax dollars. But Rupe and his fellow attorneys argued the state wasn’t fulfilling a constitutional duty to finance a suitable education for every child.

The lawsuit financed by Schools for Fair Funding prompted the Kansas Supreme Court last year to order legislators to increase spending on public schools. Lawmakers promised to phase in an $831 million increase in aid by the 2008-09 school year.

“It’s been seven years worth of hard work, and the Legislature and the state of Kansas have not made it easy,” Rupe said.

Rupe’s law firms – he switched in 2003 – collected nearly 54 percent of the money spent, or nearly $1.58 million since 1998. However, Rupe said the dollars went to multiple attorneys and covered the firms’ expenses.

His hourly fee was the highest for the plaintiffs’ attorneys, he said.

A Newton firm representing the plaintiffs collected nearly $683,000, or about 23 percent of the total.

Schools for Fair Funding paid expert witnesses almost $158,000 and legislative lobbyists more than $474,000. The remaining $12,000 paid for public relations.