Kansas governor uses line-item veto to ax rural school funding cut. What will happen now?

Gov. Laura Kelly signed the state's multi-billion-dollar education budget Thursday, though she attempted to use her line-item veto powers to remove a controversial change that could hurt rural Kansas districts, a move that will prompt outcry and a possible legal challenge from Republicans.

The education budget has increasingly become a lightning rod for controversy in recent years, as Republican lawmakers have included policy items in the funding bill, a move that has drawn frustration and condemnation from schools, who have sought a clean funding bill.

Republicans have defended the budget as a way of melding historic funding levels for schools with policy items, arguing that, by and large, districts are benefiting from court-ordered spending increases.

And while Kelly praised the money flowing to schools, she opted to reject language in the bill that would reward districts seeing an enrollment increase and cut funding for those losing students, which are generally located in rural areas.

“Today, I am keeping my commitment to Kansas families by fully funding our public schools for the fifth year in a row,” Kelly said in a statement. “What’s more, I am proud to stand up for rural schools, the heart and economic engines of communities throughout the state, by rejecting efforts to cut the funding necessary to keep them open and continuing to serve Kansas students.”

While districts are seeing a funding increase across the board due to the state's compliance with a Kansas Supreme Court-mandated funding blueprint, many are seeing fewer dollars than they would have otherwise. A few are seeing an outright loss in money.

Senate Bill 113 would give school districts the option of either taking their current year enrollment or the headcount from the previous school year to calculate how much state funding they are to receive.

That is a departure from the system that has existed over the last six years, where districts could choose to count the number of students enrolled in either of the two previous school years, a move originally designed to throw a lifeline to districts that were losing students.

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Kansas Republican leaders push AG Kris Kobach to review veto decision

Kelly left in place other controversial measures, such as an expansion of the state's primary school choice mechanism, a tax credit program for donors giving to private school scholarship funds.

Speculation has swirled in recent weeks over whether Kelly's line-item veto powers, which are usually expansive on the budget bill, also extend to the education funding measure. Her office played its cards close to the vests, with Kelly only telling reporters last week that they were weighing the legal ramifications of using the line-item veto.

The Kansas Constitution states that, in an appropriations bill, "one or more of such items may be disapproved by the governor" while other parts are signed into law.

Republicans are likely to object to the move and could elect to file suit, though Kelly's decision to limit her vetoes to funding-related items may give her stronger legal footing.

Senate President Ty Masterson and House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, said in a joint statement that they "strongly encourage the Attorney General to immediately review this unconstitutional overreach.”

"We are extremely concerned, however, that with the Kelly/Toland administration’s decision to line-itemveto policy provisions within SB 113, the administration exceeded their authority under the Kansas Constitution, which limits line-item vetoes to items of appropriations," the legislative leaders said.

A spokesperson for Kobach said only that they were "reviewing the constitutionality of the line item veto in question."

Kelly in the veto message argued that a procedural move on the House floor determined the bill to be an appropriations measure, allowing for her to use her line-item powers.

"The Legislature must end its process of 'logrolling' education funding bills that have such critical consequences for our children, families and the state," she said.

In 1981, a similar standoff between then Attorney General Robert Stephan and Gov. John Carlin emerged over Carlin's decision to reject a policy item related to school finance in a broader budget bill.

The Kansas Supreme Court ultimately rejected Stephan's request to address the action, however, ruling that the policy item at issue were "wholly foreign and unrelated to their primary purpose" and thus unallowable.

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Kansas special education funding shortfall has frustrated school districts

Sen. Molly Baumgardner, R-Louisburg, argued the reason for including the enrollment year changes was to ensure the state didn't have to pay two districts at once for the same student. Bigger districts lobbied for its passage, she noted, saying they now would lose some funding they otherwise would have received.

"They will be taking on expenses and we heard, right off the bat, that it was going to be millions of dollars going to schools to help them with their growth," Baumgardner said.

But 29 districts across the state would have been in line for a funding cut, even with more dollars flowing to schools statewide. The largest cut would have hit Fowler USD 225 in southwest Kansas, with the over $500,000 cut potentially scuttling a possible merger with a nearby district and put the district's future in jeopardy.

Jamie Wetig, Fowler's superintendent, said that the mood around the district lately had been grim, but when news reached school officials on their final day of classes, people were "ecstatic."

"Small, rural communities support their schools, they want their schools," Wetig said. "It seems like the governor understands that more than the other side of the aisle."

School districts have objected to a number of other shortcomings of the bill, including a paltry increase in special education funding, rather than a bigger chunk of money that schools had sought to bring the state into compliance with a requirement that it cover 92% of costs for special education students beyond what is spent to educate an average pupil.

Kelly said she would urge lawmakers to take that matter up again in the 2024 legislative session, as well as lobby the federal government for more dollars. Republicans have said it should be incumbent on Congress, rather than the state, to provide more money for special education.

"Republicans and Democrats agree we must put Kansas on track to fully fund special education, something that would impact each and every student," Kelly said. "When legislators return in 2024, they must correct their mistake and fulfill my plan to increase investments in special education."

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas school funding cut axed controversially by Gov. Laura Kelly