Topeka ? A Kansas court has upheld a law enacted last year repealing teacher tenure rights.

In a ruling dated June 4, Judge Larry D. Hendricks dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Kansas National Education Association that challenged the law as unconstitutional.

The language repealing tenure rights, which education officials call “due process rights,” was inserted into a bill that also made appropriations for K-12 education, higher education and several other state agencies.

Under that system, teachers who had been employed in a school district for more than a certain period of time, typically three years, had a right to a due process hearing before they could be summarily fired.

Part of KNEA’s argument was that the bill containing that language violated Article 2, Section 6, of the Kansas Constitution which says, “No bill shall contain more than one subject, except appropriation bills and bills for revision or codification of statutes.”

In a 22-page opinion, Judge Hendricks said the bill did not violate that provision, “because the appropriations provision in (the bill) are clearly reasonably related to the non-appropriations provisions in the subject matter — education.”

KNEA president Mark Farr issued a statement Tuesday saying the teachers union would review the decision.

“We believe that student-learning conditions are inextricably linked to the working conditions of our state’s education professionals,” Farr said. “We know that teachers are most successful when permitted to teach without fear of unfair or unjust dismissal.”