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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
JULY 6 - JULY 12, 2005
LEGISLATION
Deadline passes, legislature still debating
David Pulliam/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kansas State Rep. Ward Loyd, R-Great Bend, reads the news of the day during a lull in House action the morning of July 2 in Topeka. Kansas legislators are working in special session to fund the state's school system.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOPEKA — Parents, teachers and students still face the possibility that schools may not open on time in August, despite an attempted end run Tuesday by Attorney General Phill Kline around a Kansas Supreme Court threat.
Legislators were to begin their 12th day of work in a special session July 6, five days after missing the July 1 deadline set by the court for providing an extra $143 million for schools. Lawmakers' failure to approve an education funding bill led the court to set a July 8 hearing on whether it should withhold money from schools.
Kline hoped to outmaneuver the court, preventing it from cutting off funds by speeding up the certification of monthly figures for how much the state's 300 school districts receive in state aid. He argued the court couldn't block the flow of money if that process already had occurred.
But the end run also required the approval of State Budget Director Duane Goossen, who works for Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius,
and he wouldn't go along.
"We will continue to follow the law and the normal procedures," Goossen said.
The Kansas Board of Education voted 6-4 to have the amounts of state aid from August through January certified as quickly as possible. The vote mirrored the board's philosophical split, with conservatives supporting the idea and others questioning the idea's legality.
"We believe it is important to try to do something to keep schools open," said board chairman Steve Abrams of Arkansas City.
Board member Janet Waugh, of Kansas City, said, "I do not believe this is legal. I think this could backfire on us, and the backfire could hurt our kids."
Meanwhile, legislative leaders hoped their colleagues would need only a day or two to approve a school finance bill and end the special session. They quit Saturday because the House had reached an impasse.
"I'm really optimistic we'll be done in a day or two," said House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka.