The Kansas Supreme Court today denied the state’s request in the Gannon school finance case to stay further panel proceedings or to remand the case on a limited basis.
The Supreme Court remanded the case to the district court for resolution of all pending post-trial motions, including the state’s Jan. 23 motion to alter and amend the Dec. 30 order on adequacy and the plaintiffs’ Jan. 27 motion to alter the Dec. 30 order on equity, according to court documents.
The case has been dealing with two concepts – whether the funds provided to public schools are adequate, and whether they are equitable.
“In the panel’s consideration, it should remain mindful that although the issues underlying the two motions ‘do not exist in isolation from each other,’ they do exist in different stages of their resolution,” the Supreme Court stated today in its order.
The Supreme Court affirmed the panel’s equity rulings and remanded the case for the panel to enforce them after giving the Legislature an opportunity to cure the constitutional infirmities, the court stated today.
“But instead of affirming the panel’s adequacy rulings, we remanded for the panel to apply the test we articulated to determine whether the state met its constitutional duty to provide adequacy in public education,” the court stated today.
Schools for Fair Funding has been representing many school districts in this case, including the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools and the Turner Public Schools.
On Dec. 30, 2014, a three-judge panel issued an order on adequacy. The state appealed the adequacy ruling on Jan. 23.
On Jan. 27, the plaintiff school district asked to alter the Dec. 30 order on equity.
A panel hearing had been scheduled for March 5, but it was canceled, according to court documents.
On Jan. 28, the state appealed the case on the issue of adequacy. On Feb. 27, the state asked for an order to stay further panel proceedings pending disposition of the appeal, or to remand the case for the limited purpose of having the panel resolve the state’s motion to alter and amend, court documents stated. The state argued the docketing of its appeal in the Supreme Court divested the district court panel of jurisdiction to consider its outstanding motion to alter and amend.
The plaintiff school districts responded on March 3, asking to deny the state’s motion, and asked to remand the state’s appeal to the panel for final resolution of all pending post-trial motions, including the state’s Jan. 23 motion to alter and amend the Dec. 30 order on the issue of adequacy and the plaintiffs’ Jan. 27 motion to alter the Dec. 30 order on the issue of equity, according to court documents.
The appellate briefing schedule was stayed pending further notice from the court, according to court documents.
Two Supreme Court justices have recused themselves in this case, Caleb Stegall and Carol Beier.
For an earlier story on this topic, see https://wyandotteonline.com/school-districts-file-response-in-school-finance-case/