USD 305 Hopeful Special Session is Cure

Kansas lawmakers will convene in Topeka for a special session on June 23rd to begin hammering out a plan to rewrite school finance on the order of Governor Sam Brownback.

“I believe that whatever solution that the legislature comes up with is going to be very difficult to come up with something that’s going to be compliant to the order without putting more money into it,” said USD 305 Superintendent Bill Hall during the KSAL Morning News on Wednesday.

The impasse stems from the Kansas Supreme Court’s ruling to allocate more aid to some poorer districts or face a shutdown of public schools on July 1st.

Hall predicts that increase in funding lies somewhere between $38 million to $50 million dollars.

“They are going to have to do it in such a way where they can get the votes to pass it, to where no school district in the state of Kansas loses money,” Hall said.

“And to do that it’s going to take probably closer to about $50 million dollars.”

Governor Brownback told the Associated Press today, he’s willing to consider a variety of ways to raise the funds that include shifting it from other streams of aid for public schools.

A state official is estimating the cost of the special session will cost taxpayers approximately $43,000 a day.