TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — As Kansas lawmakers prepare to start a special legislative session on school funding, some lawmakers who were around for a 2005 school funding special session say the bitterness between the state Supreme Court and the Legislature still lingers.

In 2005, as now, lawmakers and the state Supreme Court were at odds over which branch of government had authority to decide how schools are funded.

The special session scheduled to start Thursday was called after the high court said the state’s education funding system remains unfair to poor school districts.

Former Rep. Mike O’Neal was chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in 2005. He told The Lawrence Journal-World (http://j.mp/28OMe6F) this session could be more contentious than the 2005 session in part because few believed schools would actually be closed.