There’s no need to change the state’s constitution to limit the Kansas Supreme Court’s jurisdiction over school finance matters, an area legislator said.

“I do not necessarily believe that we need to have a constitutional amendment specifically limiting the court from that,” Rep. Lee Tafanelli, R-Ozawkie, said during an online chat Thursday on the Journal-World’s Web site.

“I believe the same thing could be accomplished by the Legislature taking some of the ambiguity out of the term suitable, and defining what a suitable education is,” Tafanelli said.

Tafanelli recently returned from Iraq, where he commanded the Kansas National Guard’s 891st Engineer Battalion. He answered more than a dozen questions during the chat.

To read the entire chat transcript and listen to an audio interview with Tafanelli about school finance, go to www2.ljworld.com/news/chats/newsmakers/.