By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
As they prepare to return to the state capital for a special session Thursday, two local lawmakers say allowing the courts to keep schools closed after June 30 is not an option.
Earlier this month, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback called the state Legislature back to Topeka for a special session on June 23 in response to the state Supreme Court ruling that a portion of the Legislature’s school finance formula was unconstitutional.
The court has warned that schools will not be allowed to open after June 30 if lawmakers don’t approve additional fixes.
District 111th State Rep. Sue Boldra, R-Hays, said when the governor announced the recall she “was looking forward to it” and is hopeful that everyone can work together to address the issue.
40th District State Sen. Ralph Ostmeyer, R-Grinnell, called the situation “unfortunate” but was adamant that the Legislature will not shut schools down.
“We can’t afford to take that chance,” Ostmeyer said.
Neither Boldra nor Ostmeyer are members of their respective judiciary committees that have been working in the weeks leading up to the session on a plan to satisfy the courts, but they believe the two sides are not that far apart. They expect the state will have to come up with between $30 million and $50 million.
Alan Rupe, attorney for the four school districts suing the state said Kansas will have to boost education funding by nearly $30 million for the 2016-17 school year to comply with a state Supreme Court order.
Boldra said she was hopeful the courts would have kept schools open under the current formula and allowed legislators to fix in the next session.
“We already have marching orders that we have to have a finance formula ready for the 2017-18 school year,” Boldra said, “So we knew that we were going to have to do something and we would have to get it done quickly.”
Ostmeyer said the courts are overstepping their authority.
“The power of the purse is with the Legislature, not with the courts,” said Ostmeyer, adding he believes if the battle over school funding were to go before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Kansas courts would lose the battle over funding.
“Let our local officials say we haven’t got the money, we’re going to have to shut our school down. Don’t let the courts step in and have to do that,” said Ostmeyer.
But he added, “I’m not going up there with the idea to tell the court to go to hell, we’re going to shut the schools down.”
Boldra also said she does not believe the courts should tell lawmakers how to set the budgets but said she has faith in leadership and added if they can get everyone to agree, they will avoid shutting down schools.
“Shutting down the schools in rural Kansas would really destroy communities, destroy towns because so much of the economic base of communities is vested in their public schools,” said Boldra.
Keeping the schools closed after June 30 would be an unpopular move, according to Ostmeyer, because “it affects so many people.”
“Brownback is totally disdained by the public,” said Ostemeyer. “It’s total hatred out there and what bothers me, he’s a good person.”
Ostmeyer announced in May he will not seek re-election and said if he has one misgiving about not running again is the negativity surrounding state government.
“There’s two sides to every story,” said Ostmeyer.
Republican legislative leaders said Wednesday they are close to an agreement with Kansas school districts on a plan aimed at satisfying a court mandate to help poorer schools.
Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ty Masterson said Wednesday that he’s optimistic about a deal on a $38 million proposal.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Ron Ryckman Jr. said the plan is likely to shift some existing education dollars to poor districts to provide extra aid.