(KAIR)--Despite what State Representative Dr. John Eplee says is a desire to cut spending, making that move is difficult without a ruling from the Kansas Supreme Court regarding what the court deems to be adequate funding for the state's public schools from the Legislature. "I think we would cut spending, and this gets complicated but I want to explain this, were it not for the Supreme Court Gannon case that's hanging over our heads. The Gannon case is where four districts sued over funding."
Eplee made that assertion last weekend when he served as the speaker at a Legislative Coffee forum held in Atchison.
"There have been bills floated out there for as much as an 8 to 9% cut in the state general budget, across the board cuts in the budget...it would be very hard on public education, which is 52% of our budget."
Eplee told those gathered at the Santa Fe Depot Saturday morning, that while the court has made some progress regarding the funding issue, it's still a matter of wait and see for the final outcome. "The court did rule last summer, you may recall, on the equity piece, and we made schools whole on equity. The court keeps holding back on its ruling on adequacy, and the adequacy piece may be huge, we don't know."
The school finance lawsuit was filed in 2010, and it remains unknown exactly when a ruling could be forthcoming.
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