Topeka ? A Shawnee County district judge whose ruling ultimately forced Kansas legislators to dramatically boost spending on public schools confirmed Wednesday that he will retire next year after more than 30 years on the bench.

Judge Terry Bullock said he sent letters to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Kay McFarland on Sept. 7 announcing his decision to retire in January. Bullock, 66, is one of the longest-serving district judges in the county’s history.

On Wednesday, he said the school finance case, which greatly increased the state’s spending on its 296 school districts, was the most satisfying of his career.

“In terms of scope, nothing equals the school case because it encompasses 450,000 children,” Bullock said of the case that won him a Courageous Attorney Award from the Kansas Bar Assn. “To provide them with suitable and constitutional education has a tremendous significance.”

Bullock presided over the trial of a lawsuit filed in 1999 by parents and administrators in the Dodge City and Salina school districts, claiming that the state spent too little on its schools and distributed the money unfairly, to the detriment of poor, minority and disabled students.

In his December 2003 order, Bullock agreed and said legislators must provide more money to meet a constitutional duty to provide a suitable education to every child.

Bullock didn’t set a figure but said the increase could be $1 billion annually.

When legislators ended their 2004 session without passing a plan, he ordered the state not to spend a penny on its schools until lawmakers fixed the state’s school finance system.

Bullock said he viewed the case as the second half of the Brown v. Board of Education lawsuit, and made his decision on Brown’s 50th anniversary that year.

“The Brown case got all the children in the schoolhouse, and the (school finance case) got them the tools to teach them something,” he said.

The Kansas Supreme Court blocked his order when it began reviewing the lawsuit and ultimately dismissed the case on July 28, when it approved a plan phasing in $541 million in increases in public school spending over three years.

Bullock said the timing of the resolution of the case and his decision to retire were “a happy coincidence.”

He said he will continue teaching law at Washburn University and Kansas University.

“I have lived my entire life within an 80-mile radius. I’d like to do something a little different,” he said, adding that he hoped retirement would allow him to see more of his family.

Bullock began his career as district judge on July 15, 1976, and will retire on Jan. 8, 2007, having logged 30 years, five months and three weeks as Shawnee County district judge.

That’s just one week shy of the county’s record for the district judge with the longest service, according to the Office of Judicial Administration.