School ruling expected Friday

? Three weeks before 450,000 students begin returning to their classrooms, Kansans will learn whether state officials have done enough – and promised enough money – to improve public schools.

The Kansas Supreme Court will rule at 9:30 a.m. Friday on whether a plan to boost funding for schools by $541 million over three years fulfills a duty under the state constitution to finance a suitable education for every child.

The court announced its plans Wednesday, adding that Chief Justice Kay McFarland will make a brief statement in the courtroom before releasing the opinion.

“I have no idea what’s going to happen,” said Alan Rupe, a Wichita attorney representing parents and administrators in Dodge City and Salina, who sued the state over education funding in 1999.

McFarland’s plan to issue a statement raised eyebrows. There is no other known case of a chief justice making such a statement before an important ruling, court spokesman Ron Keefover said, declining to say why McFarland wanted to do so.

“Do you have any kind of gut feeling as to what this means?” asked House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, when told about the court’s plans. “I don’t spend any time trying to guess what the court’s going to do. I’m always wrong.”

The court heard arguments on the plan six weeks ago, leading Mays and others to hope for a quick decision, though the timing is not out of step with how long the justices normally take to decide a case.

Meanwhile, the state’s 296 school districts are trying to finish their work on budgets for the 2006-07 year.

“The governor will be relieved for our schools that we have something now,” said spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran. “We’ll hope that we have good news to go into the school year.”

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Mays and other legislative leaders hope the court sees the plan as a good-faith effort to comply with past orders – and perhaps even end the lawsuit.

Rupe wants the court to either order legislators to keep working on school funding or to send the case back to Shawnee County District Court, so that more evidence can be gathered about schools’ needs. Rupe contends that even with the additional money, the state will fall short of meeting those needs by nearly $1 billion over the next three years.

Last year, the court ruled that the state had failed to provide a suitable education for every child, spending too little and allowing political considerations dictate how the money was distributed. The court also said legislators must ensure that the education system continually improves.

Court orders led to a special session last summer and a $290 million increase in school spending for the 2005-06 academic year. However, the court allowed such an increase “for interim purposes” and told legislators more money would be required.

The plan approved this year increases aid to all districts, but it also targets those with high percentages of poor students and students who are at risk of failing academically.

“I think we showed good faith in trying to comply with their order and focused on the needs of children in poverty,” said House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, D-Greensburg. “There’s no doubt that we put a heck of a lot of money into education and we’re going to put a heck of a lot more in over the next two years.”

One issue for the court is whether it will hold onto the lawsuit to see whether legislators keep their funding promises. Legislators didn’t approve any proposals for raising new revenues, and projections showed the new spending would lead to a budget shortfall by 2009.

Rupe said even if the court isn’t satisfied with the plan, he doubts its order would require a special session this year. Mays and other legislative leaders have hoped to avoid one.

“That would be a disaster for everyone, a disaster for the court, for the governor, for the Legislature and the people,” Mays said.