Superintendents react to court ruling on block grant

Local school districts are playing the waiting game following a June 26 ruling by a three-judge panel that the state's new block grant school finance law is unconstitutional.

Senate Bill 7, which was approved in March by the Kansas Legislature and Gov. Sam Brownback, repeals the current school finance formula, which provides funding on a per-pupil basis, and replaces it with a block grant system for two years while lawmakers attempt to devise a permanent school funding system. The bill represents Brownback's $4.1 billion overhaul of the way the state distributes aid to schools.

The two-year block grant essentially froze the level of state operating funds available to schools.

USD 234 Fort Scott

"I'm not surprised. I think it's what everybody expected," USD 234 Superintendent Bob Beckham said of the recent court ruling. "The scary part is I don't know that anybody is certain what it means yet."

Some districts involved in a long-running lawsuit over school funding have argued that the block grant distributed funds in a way that shorted many school districts, especially poor ones. The block grant cut about $50 million in operating and maintenance funds from districts during the recent fiscal year that ended Tuesday.

In its ruling, the Shawnee County District Court panel also ordered additional funding to help districts with lower property wealth - about $50 million in local option budget and capital outlay aid that was removed from less property wealth districts. Beckham said he is not sure if this means additional money for his district, which due to the block grant law lost about $250,000 in state aid during the recent fiscal year.

"Fate was scary but uncertainty is scarier," Beckham said. "We don't know a timetable yet. I don't know that anybody is working real feverishly to get anything done this week. I think the gist (of the ruling) is that there's not enough money going into public schools. I'd like to imply it means more money for us but we don't know."

Beckham said the district was able to absorb funding cuts during the recent fiscal year through the use of fund transfers and contingency funds, and avoid cutting staff or programs, but contingencies are being depleted. The block grant means small increases in funding the next two years for USD 234 but creates budgeting challenges with frozen funding.

"And when you start considering cutting programs, you hurt kids," he said.

Beckham said district officials are currently planning the 2015-16 budget around a funding hole caused by the block grant and don't yet have a clear idea of what the recent court ruling may mean or what affect it might have.

"I haven't heard anyone say yet," he said. "We may have a clearer picture by Thursday. We're expecting definitive statements for what it means to local school districts."

Beckham said he and other district officials plan to soon make a trip to Topeka to talk with Dale Dennis, deputy commissioner for the Kansas State Board of Education, "to hear what we're taking to the board for their consideration.

"We have to mentally prepare for the worst and look at what was shoved at us this spring," Beckham said.

The court panel described the block grant as "pernicious" but its decision allows the block grant system to go forward - at least for now - if two important changes are made. Those changes are increasing funds for local option budgets and capital outlay equalization, which, if implemented, would add about $32 million in LOB and $16 million in capital outlay assistance, according to the Kansas Association of School Boards.

On Monday, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt filed a motion with the Kansas Supreme Court to block implementation of the panel's ruling. Schmidt said the panel's order was "unprecedented" and accused it of playing politics because it delivered its opinion just moments after the legislature officially ended the 2015 session Friday.

In finding the block grant funding system unconstitutional, the panel issued a temporary order that would require funding based on student weightings under the former formula. The panel ordered the state to restore about $50 million in LOB and capital outlay aid that was removed under the block grant exclusively from lower wealth districts, according to KASB.