Conservatives taking aim at constitution

opinions

January 15, 2013 - 12:00 AM

With a court ruling requiring the Legislature to increase K-12 funding by $480 million a year staring them in the face, some lawmakers want to amend the constitution instead.
It is the constitutional requirement that the schools be adequately financed that forced the Legislature to increase school funding in 2006 and will do so again in 2013 unless the Shawnee County District Court ruling is overturned or modified by the Supreme Court.
Last year’s huge income tax cuts put the budget $267 million in the hole. It would be impossible to increase school funding to meet the court’s ruling without sending state taxes soaring.
The solution, conservatives believe, is to amend the constitution to give the Legislature the authority to define an adequate education and determine K-12 funding levels.
Putting an amendment on the ballot requires two-thirds majorities in both houses. It would then be necessary to get approval from the people to turn school funding over to the most conservative, anti-tax batch of lawmakers in the state’s history.
Public opinion polls show that most Kansans favor increases in school funding rather than further cuts.

PRO-SCHOOL LEADERS will oppose altering the constitution because the education clause has been the salvation of public schools over the past decade. Nonetheless, a strong argument can be made that school funding should be determined by the Legislature rather than the courts. The Legislature is charged by the constitution with getting and spending: with levying taxes and passing a budget.
There is no logical reason why education should be funded by court order. Quite the contrary. Education consumes more than 65 percent of state spending and the public schools account for about 52 percent. Since the Legislature must raise that money it should also have control over spending it.
But that’s only half of the equation. The quality of the public schools and a state’s system of higher education to a very large extent determine the quality of life in a state and a nation. As the past five years have demonstrated in Kansas, the Legislature has not put the highest priority on maintaining the quality of the public schools or higher education.
Last year was a prime example. With the economy in recovery and state revenues increasing, lawmakers chose to slash taxes deeply rather than restore public school funding to 2007 levels. There is every reason to believe that the current Legislature and Gov. Sam Brownback would cut taxes still more rather than raise the revenues needed to provide the best possible education for Kansas students if they were not required by the constitution to put education first.
If the education clause is taken out of the constitution, as is being proposed, what requirement for educational excellence will take its place?
If the answer to that question is the prudent understanding of Kansas lawmakers — well, let’s keep the constitution just as it is and pray for wise judges and justices on the state’s courts.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

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