Your Monday Morning Update!

March 7, 2014

It’s Friday morning, and I’m sitting at my desk flipping a quarter.  Heads – the Kansas Supreme Court decision on the school lawsuit will rule for more funding for education. Tails, the ruling will be in favor of the State, maintaining that the State is funding at an appropriate level.  I flipped the coin ten times, and came up with 50/50.  Today is the day that the Supreme Court said that they would release their long-awaited decision.

The legislature has been waiting for months for the Kansas Supreme Court to rule on a lawsuit introduced by four school districts in Kansas and several individuals. The districts maintain that the legislature isn’t appropriately funding K-12 education and must increase it by over $450 million dollars to the level mandated by the Court several years ago.

At more than half way through the legislative session, it’s been hard for the legislature to even talk about a budget with this decision hanging over their cumulative heads. 

IT’S OUT….and the answer is…I’m not exactly sure, but I’ll give it my best shot.   From what I can tell is there are two issues: adequacy and equity.

The Court said that the district court didn’t apply the correct test to determine whether the State met its duty.  So, the Court is sending the issue back to the district court for a new determination. Here we go again….

As far as equity, it appears that the Court ruled that the State has failed to equitably finance K-12 schools and has until July 1^st to eliminate the disparity and fund capital outlay, which to you and me, most likely means that the Legislature needs to come up with some money.

Today is a day when many folks who read that 110 page legal document murmur “it’s obvious that I’m not a lawyer”. 

I know it appears that school funding and intellectual developmental disabilities don’t have much in common except that this ruling may be a game-changer. A small portion of State dollars go to the Community Developmental Disability Organizations to use as they see fit (typically to support individuals that are unfunded but need a safety net). Since it appears that the State now must come up with additional funding, every single dispensable cent that they can find will be seized.  I suspect we will be fighting for our dollars very soon. Sad, because these are both worthy causes!

In the meantime, I’m going to donate my quarter. We need all the help we can get.

Warm regards,

Lurena Mead

Community Relations Manager

Johnson County Developmental Supports

10501 Lackman Rd. Lenexa, Kansas 66219

Direct (913) 826-2212  Office (913) 826-2626

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