photo by: Peter Hancock

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt tells the House Judiciary Committee that he thinks it's time the voters of Kansas have an opportunity to reconsider the school finance language in Article 6 of the Kansas Constitution, Monday, April 2, 2018.

Topeka ? While the Kansas House continues to struggle with responding to a Kansas Supreme Court decision on school finance, a coalition of business and agriculture groups is pushing a constitutional amendment aimed at making sure the court could never interfere with such a decision again.

A group calling itself the Kansas Coalition for Fair Funding is pushing for the amendment, which would effectively give the Legislature exclusive authority to determine what constitutes adequate funding.

“As business and community leaders, we know that it sometimes takes tough conversations in order to find common ground and resolve differences,” H.J. Swender Jr., of the Garden City-based American Warrior oil and gas company, said in a news release Monday.

“We need to take politics out of this battle, and let the people of Kansas have the conversation to decide how they want to see this issue resolved,” he continued. “A constitutional amendment remains the best way to make sure our schools and other essential services are not neglected.”

That news release identified the other members of the coalition as the Kansas Contractors Association; Kansas Farm Bureau; the Kansas Chamber of Commerce; the Kansas Livestock Association; and the Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association.

The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold hearings on the proposed amendment Tuesday and Wednesday. On Monday, though, it held an informational briefing for committee members, explaining how the current language of the Kansas Constitution was adopted in 1966.

The language at stake in the ongoing school finance lawsuit, Gannon v. Kansas, comes from Article 6, Section 6, which reads: “The legislature shall make suitable provision for finance of the educational interests of the state.”

House Concurrent Resolution 5029 would change the word “make” to read “determine.”

It also would provide that, “The determination of the total amount of funding that constitutes suitable provision for finance of the educational interests of the state is exclusively a legislative power,” and that, “Such power … shall be shown due respect by the other branches of government.”

Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican, spoke to the committee during Monday’s briefing, saying he supports the idea of letting voters decide whether to keep the current constitutional language or change it to something else.

Although he tried not to comment specifically on the language of the amendment being discussed, he said it could not be passed in time to have any impact on the ongoing litigation.

“I’m just encouraging you, as you do whatever you’re going to do over the short term, please don’t lose sight of the longer-term issue,” Schmidt said. “Because if you do, I have some well-based concern that whoever gets to serve in these roles after us will be having this same discussion at some period hence.”

The Supreme Court has given the state until April 30 to file briefs explaining what lawmakers have done to comply with its previous order. Lawmakers, however, are scheduled to adjourn the regular part of the 2018 session on Friday. They will then take a three-week break and return April 26 for the final wrap-up session.

The Judiciary Committee meets at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, and it could take action on the measure after Wednesday’s hearing.

If the amendment passes by at least a two-thirds majority in both chambers, it would go on the Nov. 6 general election ballot, where it would need a simple majority of votes cast to be ratified.