Kansas high court strikes down state school funding program News
Kansas high court strikes down state school funding program

[JURIST] In a long-awaited decision [text] handed down Friday, the Kansas Supreme Court rejected the state's proposed $145 million dollar finance plan for public schools. In late March 2005 lawmakers approved [Lawrence Journal-World report] the additional $145 million in state funding to be used primarily for programs aiding special education, low income students, and bilingual learning. The ruling is the latest development [school finance timeline] in a lawsuit originally filed in 1999 on behalf of parents and school administrators in Dodge City and Salina school districts who were angered by what they saw as unfair distribution of education funds. In May 2004, a state judge ordered that Kansas state spending on public schools be stopped [JURIST report] after finding the school finance system unconstitutional because it underfunded the education of all students, especially minorities. AP has more.