After incurring millions of dollars in budget cuts, Kansas school districts are fighting back against the state. Early this month, some 70 school districts, primarily from Western Kansas, filed suit against the state and alleged that the state legislature had neglected its constitutional duty to adequately fund its schools. 

   If this sounds familiar, it is because Kansas schools districts have been down this road before. In 2006, districts across the state filed a similar suit in which they contended the school finance formula was unfair. They won, and the legislature increased school funding.

   Now, as the state and national economy struggle through the midst of the largest downturn in nearly 80 years, the state legislature is reneging on the promises of 2006 and is bringing the educational budget back to 2006 levels. 

   “It is really fairly simple,” Superintendent Rick Doll said. “School districts do not feel that the legislature has lived up to their constitutional responsibility to adequately fund schools. One of their recourses is [to] ask for a remedy in the courts, and that is what they are doing.”

   The suit, though filed by less than one-fourth of Kansas school districts, applies to all schools in the state. If the districts win their suit, the Kansas legislature must readdress the educational budget and allocate more money to its schools. If unsuccessful, Kansas schools will have no defense against further encroachments on the educational budget.

   District 497 has not joined in the suit, believing that the action would only antagonize an already stressed legislature. However, Doll has not yet ruled out the possibility.

   The road to a resolution will likely take some time to traverse. The case must matriculate through the courts.