TOPEKA ? House leaders are pushing a $500 million school funding increase over three years, targeting at-risk students while holding school districts more accountable on student achievement.

The House Select Committee on School Finance reviewed the proposal today, though details already were circulating and The Associated Press obtained documents outlining its contents Wednesday evening. It is the first proposal to the chamber in response to a Legislative Division of Post Audit study last month.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius told reporters today that such a plan would put the state “right on track” to meeting judicial and constitutional mandates.

“I think this is real progress,” she said during a brief news conference.

In the first year, the plan calls for increasing spending by $175 million and setting aside $500,000 for teachers seeking certification in bilingual courses. An additional $325 million would be distributed over the second and third years, targeting poor and minority students as identified by the study.

“I think it is a workable plan. It’s a plan we hope will answer the court’s concerns but at the same time it’s not dumbing down our rural schools,” House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, said Wednesday night. “What we tried to do is take into consideration the court case, the resources we have and what is fair for children no matter where they live in Kansas.”

The plan is the product of negotiations since the start of the session between legislative leaders and Sebelius.

The study concluded that legislators needed to increase spending by as much as $470 million to satisfy a constitutional mandate to adequately fund public schools and to comply with rulings by the Kansas Supreme Court in 2005.

Rural school districts would continue to get a greater proportion of money for being small, as they do under the current finance formula, than their larger counterparts. But under the study’s recommendations, rural districts could lose as much as $136 million they now receive, a notion the House rejected.

The House plan also would hold schools and school districts to greater accountability.

Districts would be required to determine spending priorities, to be reviewed by the Kansas Department of Education.

Schools failing to meet yearly student progress on state tests would be required to redistribute money to make improvements. Failing that, schools would face greater scrutiny by state education officials.

“I think it’s pretty reasonable. We spent a lot of time talking with a lot of people trying to build a consensus,” said House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, D-Greensburg. “It does put a meaningful amount of money into education and does address the key issues.”

Last year, legislators increased school spending by $290 million to more than $3 billion, including $148 million added during a special session last summer prompted by Supreme Court orders.

Despite signing off on the increases, the court said after the special session that education funding still was insufficient and suggested it would order more money absent legislative action in 2006.

The multiyear plan didn’t find favor with attorneys for parents and administrators from Dodge City and Salina, who sued the state over school funding in 1999.

Their lead attorney, Alan Rupe, said he’s still concerned about phasing in the increase because inflation will increase schools’ costs. Also, he said schools face rising standards for student performance because of federal mandates.

“It’s like trying to pay off a huge credit card balance by paying less than the minimum payment,” he said.

Rupe said he doesn’t object to holding rural districts harmless, as long as legislators provide enough money to help at-risk, poor and minority students.

Mark Tallman, lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said educators are skeptical about a multiyear plan.

“The Legislature kind of has a history of multiyear plans that never get beyond the first year,” Tallman said. “What is the commitment to doing this?”

Even so, Tallman said the plan represents the most serious legislative effort to address school funding. He said the $500 million increase is “the money we need next year.”

Senators are working on their own plan, which they expect to introduce next week.

Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt called the House plan “an aggressive, good faith effort.”

“It’s going to stretch our available resources to the absolute limit, but I think it’s a plan we can work with,” said Schmidt, R-Independence.