BySTEPHEN KORANDA & CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN

A fresh push by school districts to get Kansas to pony up more money for public education met with skepticism Thursday from the Kansas Supreme Court.

Justices had pointed questions for both sides in the lawsuit that began in 2010 and has already gone through multiple rounds of oral arguments and rulings.

Justice Eric Rosen called it frustrating that the funding goal that school districts argue for seems to be a moving target.

“Is there ever ‘crossing the finish line’ in these types of cases?” Rosen asked the districts’ attorney, Alan Rupe. “Or are you going to be back here three or four years down the road, making the same argument you just made?”

Rupe responded that all the court has to do is tell lawmakers to redo the inflation adjustment and districts would be satisfied.

“I think we’re getting real close,” Rupe said.

The question at hand in Gannon v. Kansas is whether the state has done enough to finally end a nearly  decade-long lawsuit over school spending.

So the attorney representing the state, Toby Crouse, argued it should be “case dismissed.”

But the question is whether lawmakers added enough.

Rupe, who’s been fighting the state for more education funding for three decades, questioned the state’s inflation calculations and asked the justices to make lawmakers recalculate when they return for the 2020 legislative session.

How much is enough?

Lawmakers took a major step last year, by promising to phase in a half billion dollars for schools.

That got close to ending the lawsuit, except for the inflation problem that justices identified.

Crouse said the plan to add $90 million per year for four years should end the litigation.

He argued that approval this year from a bipartisan group of lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly give credence to the state’s solution.

“Everyone agrees that this is what satisfies not only the constitution,” Crouse said, “but also the best interests of the children.”

Rupe said the state continues to fall short because its new solution only calculated inflation for part of the funding increase to schools, not overall spending.

School districts contend spending ultimately has to reach levels consistent with a court ruling from the mid-2000s that dramatically increased school funding and ended a previous lawsuit, Montoy v. Kansas.

Hitting that target based on the Montoy agreement would take $3.7 billion in total annual funding by 2023, the districts argue. And it would shield the Legislature from litigation. But hitting that target would take another $270 million in annual funding by 2023 over what the state has promised.

Rupe says that’s an important difference, because $270 million could pay for 5,400 teachers.

Justice Dan Biles was skeptical the state needs to spend that much to meet constitutional requirements.

“That safe harbor number,” Biles said, “doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the minimum level necessary to comply with the constitution.”

Should the court trust the Legislature to keep its promises?

Even if they sign off on lawmakers’ latest fix, justices questioned the state’s request to dismiss the lawsuit.

Biles said the state would not be in full compliance with the court until it had paid out all the money in the school spending deal, which will take several years.

“I’ve got to tell you, I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the idea of dismissing this lawsuit,” Biles said.

There’s fear the governor and the Legislature might go back on their promises for more robust funding. They’ve done it before.

School districts filed the current suit, Gannon v. Kansas, in 2010, after governors Kathleen Sebelius and Mark Parkinson slashed school funding amid the global financial crisis and recession. The districts argued those cuts violated commitments the state made to end the Montoy lawsuit.

The district court and Kansas Supreme Court agreed. In ruling after ruling, they’ve pushed the state to restore hundreds of millions of dollars to its school funding formula. That included restoring targeted money meant to put poorer areas of the state on more equal footing with wealthier ones in terms of resources for education.

What if, Biles wondered, the court drops the case and the Legislature goes back to block grants or other funding schemes that have been found unconstitutional? Plaintiffs would have to start over at district court.

“When what the Legislature did is something we’ve already said they can’t do,” he said. “So that’s my problem.”

Stephen Koranda and Celia Llopis-Jepsen are reporters for the Kansas News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter @kprkorandaand Celia @Celia_LJ.

RENO COUNTY. – Law enforcement authorities are investigating an attempted robbery and have four suspects in custody.

Just after 4:30 p.m. Friday Hutchinson Police Officers were dispatched to the Kansas State Fairgrounds reference to a shooting at the RV park, according to a media release.

Armando Castillo Jr, of Mineral Wells, Texas reported being confronted by four individuals while inside his 5th wheel camper. He was battered but was able to grab a firearm he had hidden in the camper. Castillo fired several shots to try and get the neighbors to call 911.

Everyone involved was still on scene when officers arrived. No injuries were reported due to gunfire. During the investigation, it was discovered that the suspects came to Castillo’s camper to get cash.

Police arrested four suspects identified as 22-year-old Kaleb Schyler Beard, 23-year-old Kerrah Schulze, 20-year-old Richard Fenters and 22-year-old Blaine White all of Wichita. They are being being held on requested charges of attempted aggravated robbery

DOUGLAS COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspects on drug and weapons charges.

Just after 2 a.m. Friday, deputies responded to reports of shots being fired into the air from a vehicle near the intersection of U.S. 24-59 and U.S. 24-40 intersection, according to Sgt. Kristen Channel. Deputies were unable to locate the suspects.

A short time later, Lawrence Police officers spotted a suspect vehicle in the 900 block of Pennsylvania Street and questioned the two occupants and discovered a large amount of methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana as well as a stolen handgun and more than $11,000 in cash.

They arrested 31-year-old Antonio Brown and 28-year-old Bounsouay Khanya on requested charges of possession with the intent to distribute narcotics/methamphetamine/marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. Brown also faces counts of felon in possession of a firearm and criminal discharge of a firearm.

By JOHN HANNA AP Political Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas Supreme Court decision will force the state Senate into voting to reject a judicial nominee over political tweets that lawmakers found offensive.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly did not have the authority under a 2013 state law to withdraw her nomination of Labette County District Judge Jeffry Jack for the Kansas Court of Appeals, the state’s second-highest court. And, under the law, if the Senate fails take a vote by next week, Jack would be considered confirmed.

Kelly’s withdrawal of Jack’s nomination in March touched off an unprecedented and bizarre legal dispute with Senate President Susan Wagle over whether the governor could name a second nominee — as Kelly eventually did. The Supreme Court’s decision means that Kelly will get that chance if the Senate, as expected, rejects Jack’s nomination.

“I encourage the Senate to act swiftly to vote down the Jack appointment next week,” Kelly said in a statement after the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The nomination was doomed after political tweets from Jack in 2017 came to light. They included vulgar language and criticism of President Donald Trump and other Republicans, with one post calling the president “Fruit Loops.”

Wagle, a Wichita Republican, has called Jack “absolutely unacceptable.” Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, predicted no senator would vote for him.

Wagle and other Senate leaders already anticipated the possibility of such a Supreme Court ruling, and the Senate is scheduled to convene Tuesday. Lawmakers wrapped up most of their business for the year early Sunday.

The Senate president contends Kelly failed to properly vet Jack and said Friday that the legal dispute resulted from a “display of her incompetence.”

“Sadly, this avoidable situation by the Kelly administration has turned into a waste of taxpayer dollars,” Wagle said in a statement.

The Supreme Court ruled only a day after hearing arguments from attorneys. It was also less than three weeks after Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican, filed a lawsuit against Kelly, Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss and the Senate to resolve the dispute.

The Supreme Court appointed a substitute for Nuss, who removed himself. His attorneys told his colleagues that he had no position on how the case should be resolved.

The vacancy on the Court of Appeals was created by the retirement of longtime Judge Patrick McAnany on the day that Kelly took office in January.

The 2013 law says that if governor fails to make an appeals-court nomination within 60 days of a vacancy, Nuss makes the appointment. The deadline was March 15, the day Jack was nominated, and Wagle argued that Jack’s withdrawal meant Kelly failed to make a proper nomination in time.

Under the law, the Senate has 60 days to act on a nominee if the Legislature is in session, as it was when Kelly named Jack, or the nomination is deemed confirmed. The law says that if the Senate rejects a nominee, the governor appoints another.

Kelly cited that section of the law in arguing that she could name a new nominee, and she chose Sarah Warner, a 39-year-old Kansas City-area attorney.

It’s time to move forward and fill this vacancy,” Kelly said in her statement.

The 2013 law applies only to Court of Appeals appointments and doesn’t specifically say what happens if a nomination is withdrawn. A broader law applying to other appointments allows nominations to be withdrawn.

Justice Dan Biles wrote in the Supreme Court’s opinion that the Court of Appeals is “the obvious outlier” and the justices would be “adding words” to the 2013 law if they concluded that it allows an appeals court nomination to be withdrawn.

“We conclude the Governor is powerless to withdraw a Court of Appeals nominee once it is made,” Biles wrote.

If a nominee withdraws, Biles wrote, the only “practical purpose” is “clearing the path” for a quick vote against his or her confirmation. The court also concluded that Kelly’s nomination of Warner must be treated “as if it never happened.”

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A government report forecasts a bountiful Kansas winter wheat harvest.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Friday that this year’s wheat crop is expected to be up 17 percent from a year ago. It predicted Kansas growers would bring in 323 million bushels.

The agency forecast the state’s average yield at 49 bushels per acre, up 11 bushels from last year.

It also anticipated that grain would be harvested from 6.6 million acres in Kansas, down 700,000 acres from a year ago.

The government’s estimate is a bit more optimistic than the one put out by participants in last week’s winter wheat tour who estimated the size of the Kansas crop at 306.5 million bushels.