Kansas Supreme Court rejects KNEA suit on teacher tenure

Kansas Supreme Court Justices take their seats to hear oral arguments in this file photo from Dec. 10, 2015.

? In a unanimous ruling Friday, the Kansas Supreme Court rejected a challenge brought by the state’s largest teachers union to a 2014 law that repealed tenure rights for veteran teachers.

Democratic leaders in the Kansas Legislature quickly responded, saying they plan to introduce a bill to restore teacher tenure rights, also known as due process rights.

The Kansas National Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, challenged the law, arguing that it was contained in a bill that included both appropriations and changes in substantive law, which they claimed was a violation of the Kansas Constitution’s one-subject rule.

Article 2, Section 16 of the Kansas Constitution provides, “No bill shall contain more than one subject, except appropriation bills and bills for revision or codification of statutes.”

Writing for the court, Justice Dan Biles acknowledged that KNEA had standing to bring the lawsuit, but that the Kansas Constitution “does not forbid combining appropriations and general legislation made into a single bill, so long as all provisions of that bill address the same subject.”

The bill, H.B. 2506 in the 2014 session, was passed in response to the court’s ruling in the ongoing school finance case that said certain kinds of “equalization aid” under the school funding formula at that time were being distributed inequitably, in violation of the Constitution.

The bill, titled “an act concerning education,” cut funding for several state agencies and shifted $130 million to public schools for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 academic years.

But it also contained substantive changes in law, including one that had been on the books for decades that guaranteed teachers who had been employed in a district for a certain number of years were entitled to a due process hearing before they could be summarily dismissed or nonrenewed for another year.

That provision was thought to be important for getting support for the bill from conservative Republicans who thought the Supreme Court had overstepped its bounds in the ruling.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt, whose office defended the new law, responded with a statement: “Today’s decision is protective of the legislative power granted by the Kansas Constitution and respects the important constitutional principle of separation of powers.”

KNEA said it would continue to “pursue all avenues including potential legal action” to restore teachers’ due process rights.

“We believe that this fundamental right enables professional educators to advocate fully for their students without fear of punitive reprisal,” KNEA said in a statement. “Further, due process protection serves to make teaching in Kansas an attractive proposition along with fair compensation and benefits, a stable KPERS system, and the right to have a say in their own working conditions through collective bargaining.”

Democratic leaders in the Legislature, meanwhile, said they would introduce a bill next week to reinstate the due process statutes for teachers.

“I think the appropriate response is to restore due process rights for teachers, and we plan to introduce that bill,” Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, said during a news conference Friday.

Hensley said Democrats would make a formal announcement on Wednesday to unveil a number of initiatives, including restoration of teacher due process rights.

The important question, though, is whether moderate Republicans who, along with Democrats, made substantial gains in the 2016 elections, particularly in the House, will go along with that.

House Democratic leader Jim Ward, of Wichita, said he didn’t know how many Republicans would support such a measure, “but we’re going to give them an opportunity to weigh in on that important public policy in the next couple of weeks.”