The Kansas Supreme Court will hand down a decision Friday in a lawsuit over school funding and the potential impact could be hundreds of millions of dollars.
A group made up of school districts and parents says Kansas is not living up to its constitutional responsibility to fund education. They say the state has reneged on promises to increase spending.
Those promises followed a previous lawsuit over school funding. Lawyers for the state say it is up to legislators, not the courts, to decide how much to spend on schools.
"This is certainly another milestone, I would say, in the school funding finance issue, and the decision will have definite implications." said Rep. Kasha Kelley, an Arkansas City Republican who chairs the House Education Committee.
Kelley says the ruling could lead lawmakers to consider rewriting the state's school funding formula. She says if the court orders more funding, lawmakers will have few options other than spending cuts or increasing taxes.
But the decision could also prompt a standoff between lawmakers and the courts. Some legislators say the justices would be overstepping their bounds by ordering the state to spend more.
