June 24, 2005
Associated Press
A proposal to rewrite the Kansas constitution to limit the state Supreme Court's power failed in the Legislature Sunday, thwarting an effort by Republican leaders to punish the court for its recent order telling lawmakers to provide more money for public schools. The state's highest court earlier this month directed legislators to provide another $143 million in education funding by July 1... The proposed constitutional change would have declared that courts and the executive branch have no authority to tell legislators to appropriate money or to redirect funds after they have been allotted by lawmakers. The House voted 70-53 to adopt the measure, but it fell 14 votes short of the two-thirds majority necessary in the 125-member chamber. The Senate had already adopted it. Approval in the lower chamber would have put it on the ballot for a statewide election on Aug. 30. Most Democrats and some Republicans saw the proposed amendment as an attempt to prevent the court from checking the Legislature's power, saying lawmakers instead should concentrate on devising a plan to meet the court's order. "We don't change the constitution in the heat of the moment," said House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, who voted against the amendment. "You should have some time to temper your anger." The Supreme Court's directive June 3 came in a six-year-old lawsuit from Dodge City and Salina, where parents and administrators claimed Kansas spends too little money on education and distributes its aid unfairly, shortchanging poor children, minorities and struggling students. The case has many worried that the state's schools may not be able to reopen this fall. A lower court told the state last year that it could not spend any money on its schools until it fixed its funding system effectively keeping classrooms shuttered but the Supreme Court put that decision on hold.
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