Education Funding Hearings Underway

Attorneys for cash-strapped Kansas are trying to persuade the state Supreme Court not to order hundreds of millions of dollars in additional aid each year for schools.

But lawyers for four poorer local school districts, who will present arguments before the court Wednesday, say they are confident the judges will side with them.

The Dodge City, Hutchinson, Wichita and Kansas City, Kansas, districts sued in 2010. They contend legislators aren’t providing enough aid to give every child a suitable education, as required by the constitution.

The six-year legal dispute has brought the court into repeated conflict with GOP conservatives who control the rest of state government.

The justices are considering whether the state’s nearly $4.1 billion in annual aid to school districts is sufficient or up to $1.4 billion short.