After two days of meetings last week, members of Kansas House and Senate Judiciary committees failed to reach any consensus on how to respond to a Kansas Supreme Court ruling that declared the state’s current school finance formula unconstitutional.

Those committees obviously are not the last word on this issue, but their lack of agreement doesn’t bode well for the legislative special session that begins on Thursday.

Lawmakers will come back to Topeka just a week before the court’s June 30 deadline to revise the school finance system or risk having funding cut off for K-12 schools across the state. The looming deadline may inspire a greater spirit of compromise among legislators, but deep divides that marked last week’s committee meetings show that the Legislature has a long way to go to come up with a reasonable response to the court’s order.

Gov. Sam Brownback and some legislators are willing to reinstate the old finance formula, which met the court’s standard for equitably distributing school funds. That would cost the state about $38 million. However Johnson County legislators are adamant that any formula must include a “hold harmless” clause that keeps any district — including many in Johnson County — from having their funding cut. Such a clause not only would cost the state an additional $11.7 million, it would preserve funding inequities that likely would make the court reject the plan.

Some legislators still were looking for ways to defy the court order. In fact, the most solid action that came out of last week’s committee meetings was a Senate Judiciary Committee recommendation that the special session include consideration of a constitutional amendment prohibiting the court from closing schools as part of school funding litigation. Such a measure probably is an unconstitutional infringement on the court’s powers, and, since it couldn’t be voted on until November, would do nothing to resolve the current funding dilemma.

When Brownback set the special session for Thursday, he indicated that legislators might find it easier to coalesce around a strategy as the June 30 deadline grew closer. He and legislative leaders even expressed the hope that the special session would last just one or maybe two days. If lawmakers can agree to a plan that provides additional funding and addresses the court’s equity concerns in a day or two, that would be great, but judging from last week’s meetings, such an agreement seems a long way off.