TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the Kansas Legislature’s debate on increasing school funding to meet a court mandate (all times local):

 

A conservative Kansas lawmaker is suggesting that problems facing public schools aren’t a matter of money but a shift away from God in recent decades.

Republican Rep. Randy Garber, of Sabetha, argued Saturday during a 13-minute speech on a school funding bill that problems with society and public education stem from U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the early 1960s declaring school-sponsored prayer and Bible reading unconstitutional.

Garber concluded his speech by telling his colleagues: “If we don’t fix society, we won’t fix our schools.”

He added, “I say the way to fix our schools is to put prayer and the Bible back and give it a chance.”

House Democratic Leader Jim Ward of Wichita called Garber’s remarks “disappointing” and that providing a good public education is “hard work.”