Kansas Supreme Court to rule Thursday on school finance equity

Kansas Supreme Court Justice Marla Luckert, left, listens while Chief Justice Lawton Nuss asks a question during oral arguments in Gannon v. State of Kansas at the Kansas Supreme Court Friday, Nov. 6, 2015, in Topeka, Kan. The case, filed on behalf of several school districts, contends current school funding isn't equitable or adequate.

? The Kansas Supreme Court will release a decision Thursday in one portion of the ongoing school finance lawsuit dealing with how equitably a certain kind of school aid is distributed.

A three-judge panel ruled last year that the Kansas Legislature violated the state Constitution when it repealed the old school funding formula and replaced it for two years with a system of block grants.

Those block grants now include the “base” funding that districts used to get based on their enrollment, plus additional aid to subsidize their local option budgets and their capital outlay funds. But the new law also changed the way local option budget and capital outlay aid is calculated for the block grants, and it essentially froze overall funding for districts in place at 2015 levels.

The court is expected to release its decision about 9:30 a.m Thursday.