In this June 1, 2016 file photo, Kansas' Vice President of the Senate Jeff King swings the gavel down to end the 2016 legislative session at the Kansas statehouse in Topeka, Kan. King is drafting a proposed constitutional amendment to prevent Kansas courts from shutting down public schools in lawsuits over education funding. He outlined his proposal amendment Thursday, June 9, and said he plans to have the Senate Judiciary Committee review it next week. (Chris Neal/Topeka Capital-Journal via AP, File)

Topeka ? Republican legislators who want to limit the courts’ power to force changes in how Kansas funds its public schools could revive several long-standing proposals for revising the state constitution.

Lawmakers convene June 23 for a special session called by Gov. Sam Brownback to respond to a state Supreme Court order last month declaring that the state’s school funding system remains unfair to poor school districts. The court warned that public schools will not be able to reopen after June 30 unless legislators rewrite school education funding laws.

Senate Vice President Jeff King, an Independence Republican, said he’s drafting a proposed constitutional amendment to prevent courts from threatening to close schools in the future. GOP legislators have talked about such a change for more than a decade, and two major alternatives also have been discussed as long.

“I want to be open to considering a number of options,” King said.

Here are some of the legal issues involving school funding and proposals to amend the Kansas Constitution:

Ongoing litigation

Kansas has been in and out of legal disputes over school funding for nearly 30 years. The latest round began with a lawsuit filed in 2010 by the Dodge City, Hutchinson, Wichita and Kansas City, Kansas, school districts.

The Kansas Constitution says the Legislature must make “suitable provision” for financing the state’s “educational interests.” The state Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that lawmakers must finance a suitable education for all children, whether they live in rich areas or poor ones.

A Supreme Court order in an earlier lawsuit in 2005 prompted a special legislative session and promises from lawmakers to boost spending on schools. The latest lawsuit was filed after the Great Recession prompted lawmakers to back off those promises.

What change requires

A proposed constitutional amendment must be approved by two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate. While the GOP has larger majorities than that in each chamber, House Republicans have been split enough to prevent anything from passing.

If lawmakers were to approve a constitutional change, it would go on the November general election ballot. Approval by a simple majority of voters would revise the constitution.

No school closings

King said his proposal would prohibit the state’s courts from ordering schools closed as a remedy in education funding cases.

The Senate approved such a proposed amendment during the 2005 special session, but supporters failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority in the House. It was one of four such proposals introduced in 2005 and 2006.

John Robb, an attorney representing the four school districts that filed the 2010 lawsuit, said it’s taken the threat that schools won’t reopen to get lawmakers to consider rewriting school funding laws again. He said taking away the possibility would “emasculate” the constitutional provision on school funding.

“That’s all the court has,” he said.

Who defines suitable?

King pursued a different proposed amendment in 2013, one declaring that financing education is “exclusively a legislative power” and suitable funding “shall be established solely by the Legislature.” Senators approved it, but the measure never received a vote in the House.

It was among six versions of such an amendment introduced during the past 11 years.

One unsuccessful House proposal during the 2005 special session would have added language to the state constitution declaring: “The courts of the state of Kansas shall have no jurisdiction to review the financing of public education or the distribution of education expenditures in the state.”

Appropriating money

A third idea is expanding a short section of the constitution that says no money can be drawn from the state treasury without a “specific appropriation made by law.”

The wording of proposals has varied, but they generally would have added language to prevent the courts from ordering legislators to make specific appropriations. The goal has been to block the Supreme Court from directing lawmakers to increase aid to public schools by a specific amount.

A version of the proposal failed in the House in 2012, and another introduced in 2015 died in committee.

Capping spending

As they consider long-standing proposals, GOP conservatives may consider a new one: Capping education funding.

Rep. John Rubin, a Shawnee Republican, said he’ll raise the idea of amending the constitution to limit aid to public schools to a certain percentage of the state’s spending.

Rubin said he believes the state is spending too much on its public schools already and, “All they want is more, more and ever more.”

— Also contributing was Associated Press writer Melissa Hellmann.