Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly signed a bill Thursday funding Kansas public schools for the next year that included an expansion of an existing school choice program. But in a test of her powers, she rejected a policy provision that would have cut funding to many rural school districts.
The Democratic governor emphasized the need to fully fund the state’s K-12 schools, but criticized the Legislature’s approach that ties policy decisions to funding and said the portion of the bill affecting rural district funding could violate the state’s constitutional obligation to fully fund public education.
“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.”
The provision Kelly vetoed adjusted the formula for determining funding to each district by allowing schools to calculate aid based upon their current or previous year's enrollment rather than any of the past two years. The change would have helped growing districts in suburban parts of the state, but it would have harmed shrinking rural districts and the state’s largest urban districts. Districts that closed a school in the last year would be required to use current year enrollment only.
“This provision jeopardizes the vitality of our rural communities and threatens the economic engines of many small towns,” she said.
While rural districts faced often faced the highest percentage cuts to their funding under the proposal, Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools and the Olathe School District would have lost the largest raw dollar amounts at $3.2 million and $1.6 million respectively. The Bonner Springs district in Wyandotte County would have lost nearly $760,000.
But every other Johnson and Wyandotte County district would have gained funding, including an additional $1.1 million in the Shawnee Mission School District.
Wichita Public Schools would lost more than $200,000, under the plan, but the Maize district in the suburbs would have gained more than $1.2 million.
The move marks the first time Kelly has attempted to use her line-item veto power on the education budget bill. The Kansas constitution grants the governor the power to veto specific lines in appropriations bills, but Republicans and Democrats have been divided on whether that power extends to the K-12 budget, which passed in a separate bill from the broad state budget.
In recent years, Republican lawmakers have passed the education budget separately from the main budget as a way to impose education policy that may not be able to pass on its own.
Speaking to reporters last week, Kelly said her team was studying the line-item option and that she was not eager to enter into a special session.
In her veto message, Kelly said she held the power to line-item veto the policy because debates in the Legislature acknowledged it was an appropriations bill. She criticized the practice of combining policy with the schools budget as “logrolling.”
“This process lacks public transparency and prevents the collaboration that could prevent unintended consequences of hastily crafted legislation,” Kelly said in her veto message.
GOP leaders in the Legislature are likely to challenge Kelly’s decision in court. Speaking to The Star earlier this month Rep. Kristey Williams, an Augusta Republican and chair of the K-12 Budget Committee, said she believed a line-item veto is beyond Kelly’s powers.
Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, and House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, in a joint statement questioned the legality of Kelly’s decision.
“We are extremely concerned, however, that with the Kelly/Toland administration’s decision to line-item veto policy provisions within SB 113, the administration exceeded their authority under the Kansas Constitution, which limits line-item vetoes to items of appropriations. We strongly encourage the Attorney General to immediately review this unconstitutional overreach,” the GOP leaders said in the statement.
A spokeswoman for Kansas Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach said in a statement that the office is reviewing the constitutionality of Kelly’s veto of the provision.
Stephen McAllister, a University of Kansas law professor and former Kansas solicitor general, said in an email last month that he believed the governor had clear line-item veto authority on the education budget.
In her veto message, Kelly said the policy would have “dangerous and devastating consequences to our rural districts.”
Since Republicans sent the budget bill to Kelly last month, public education advocates — key allies of Kelly — have urged the governor to veto the funding bill and call lawmakers back to Topeka for a special session.
They expressed frustration over several policies including expanded eligibility for a tax credit scholarship for private schools and the funding adjustments.
Leah Fliter, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, applauded Kelly’s decision. She told The Star that districts had already budgeted assuming the finance formula would be the same as it was in previous years. The proposed change on enrollment would have thrown that process into upheaval, she argued.
“There had been a lot of plans made and then they found at in April that they might have to change the way that their budgets are allocated,” Fliter told The Star. Districts, she said, begin their fiscal year July 1 and must give non-renewal notices to teachers by Friday.
Though she acknowledged continued uncertainty from a likely legal challenge, Fliter said districts “have more certainty than they did yesterday.”
“A lot of the districts who are going to lose either get a lower amount or actually end up negative. It’s just that they didn’t know that was coming,” she said. “They’ve already been budgeting and signing contracts based on what current law is and so they’re left kind of, they feel like, holding the bag.”
While she vetoed the provision on shrinking districts, Kelly ultimately allowed the expansion to an existing school choice formula to take effect.
The tax credit scholarship was first established in 2014 under former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and has been steadily grown over the years. The budget bill increased student eligibility for the scholarships to anyone below 250% of the poverty line and allowed donors to claim a higher percentage of their donation as a credit.
According to the Kansas Department of Revenue, $21 million has been claimed in tax credits since the program began in 2014. Last year, less than $5 million was claimed in credits though the state allocates up to $10 million for them. This year 1,340 students are using the scholarships at 88 schools.
Fliter said she was disappointed the tax credit scholarship expansion would become law but pledged to continue fighting similar programs in the future.
Republicans in the Legislature had sought a more wide-reaching policy allowing public dollars to be used in private schools, arguing solutions were needed for students who don’t thrive in the traditional public school. But no bill offering a larger program could pass both the House and Senate.
Kelly also criticized the Legislature’s refusal to add the $72 million for special education she had requested. The law instead includes the creation of a task force to study the issue.
“When legislators return in 2024, they need to correct their mistake and put Kansas on track to fully fund special education,” Kelly said.
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