The Kansas Statehouse in Topeka.

TOPEKA — Members of the public will have brief opportunities to share their thoughts about how the Kansas Legislature should respond to a recent Supreme Court ruling on school funding equity, and possible changes to the Kansas Constitution.

The House and Senate Judiciary Committees will hold joint hearings on those issues Thursday and Friday, one week in advance of an upcoming special session of the Legislature. The agenda for those hearings calls for a half-hour of public comment on potential funding formula changes on Thursday, and an additional half-hour on Friday.

The committees meet from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursday, and from 9:30 a.m. to noon on Friday in Room 346-South of the Statehouse, also known as the Old Supreme Court Room.

On May 27, the Kansas Supreme Court struck down a portion of this year’s school funding plan that distributes “equalization aid” that subsidizes the local option budgets of some school districts. The court said that system forces taxpayers in lower-wealth districts to pay higher property taxes to achieve the same level of funding as wealthier districts.

The court gave the Legislature until the end of the current fiscal year, June 30, to correct the problem and suggested it would close public schools on July 1 if lawmakers do not respond.

Gov. Sam Brownback has called for a special session starting June 23 to address that ruling.

Lawmakers are expected to look at several options for revising the funding formula for local option budget aid. One of those, which the court has said would satisfy the equity concern, would reinstate the old formula that was used prior to 2014 and restore full funding for it.

That would cost an estimated $38 million in additional school aid. But it would also result in big funding cuts for many wealthier districts, especially in Johnson County where the Blue Valley school district would lose $2.4 million in state aid while the Shawnee Mission district would lose nearly $1.5 million.

The Lawrence school district would gain just over $1.5 million in state LOB aid, according to the Kansas Department of Education, but that would not represent additional spending authority. Instead, that money would enable the district to lower its property tax mill levy while still maintaining the same amount of spending.

An agenda for the two-day hearing calls for a half-hour of public comment on potential funding formula changes beginning at 11:45 a.m. Thursday, and an additional half-hour starting at 9:30 a.m. Friday.

The panel will also hear public comment on possible constitutional amendments starting at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

Legislative staff preparing for the hearings said people who aren’t able or don’t want to appear personally may also submit written comments by contacting the House committee and Senate committee.

Sen. Jeff King, R-Independence, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said at least two possible amendments are likely to come up in the special session, including one that he has drafted that would prohibit either the Legislature or judiciary from taking action that would close public schools by cutting off funds.