TOPEKA – Attorney General Derek Schmidt has filed the legislative response to the Kansas Supreme Court’s school district equity ruling earlier this year in Gannon v. Kansas, according to a media release.

Schmidt, on behalf of the State, officially transmitted to the Supreme Court Senate Substitute for House Bill 2655, which is the Legislature’s response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in February that the distribution of school funds was unconstitutionally inequitable. Governor Sam Brownback on Thursday signed the bill into law.

Because the Court directed the Legislature to show how it analyzed and considered the Constitution’s requirements when crafting this bill, Schmidt also filed with the Court the legislative history of the bill, except the legislative committee minutes, which will be filed after they are adopted and approved in official form.

Schmidt requested that the Supreme Court expedite its review of the bill because of the Court’s threat to close public schools July 1 if the constitutional defects identified in the law are not remedied.

“There is clearly no need to order the schools to close, and we are asking the Court to act quickly so that worry can be eliminated as soon as possible for educators, parents and schoolchildren throughout our state,” Schmidt said.

A copy of the filing is available here.