Kansas Supreme Court Upholds Plaintiffs' School Funding Claims and Remands Case

On January 24, the Kansas Supreme Court, in Montoy v. State, reversed a lower court decision dismissing this challenge to the state's school funding system under the Kansas constitution. The court remanded all three of plaintiffs claims to the trial court for further proceedings.

Plaintiffs are asking the courts to find that the state education finance system violations the Kansas Constitution's: (1) education article, which requires the legislature to provide for "the suitable finance of the educational interests of the State"; (2) equal protection clause; and, (3) substantive due process provision. They also seek a funding system based on the actual costs of educating children in the state's school districts.

The State Supreme Court upheld the then-current school funding system in 1994, in Unified School District 229 v. State, 885 P.2d 1170. However, in Montoy, the court said that the statutes have since been changed, "this case is sufficiently removed in time from our decision in U.S.D. 229," and "the suitability analysis required by U.S.D. 229 is more rigorous than presumed by the district court."

Prepared February 5, 2003