This website is best viewed in a browser that supports web standards.

Skip to content or, if you would rather, Skip to navigation.

Listen Live
Donate
MARYVILLE

KXCV-KRNW


News Brief

May 1, 2018TOPEKA, Kan. |  By: AP

Kansas legislators approve bill to fix education funding flaw

Kansas legislators have approved a bill that is designed to fix a flaw in a new education funding law that would have cost public schools $80 million.

The Senate's 30-8 vote yesterday sends the measure to Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer, and he has promised to sign it. The House approved the bill Saturday.

The new school funding law was supposed to phase in a $534 million increase in education funding in hopes of meeting a Kansas Supreme Court mandate to boost spending on public schools.

The law set a minimum for local property tax revenues to be raised by local school boards and counted those dollars toward the state's total aid. Instead of adding local dollars to state dollars, the technical calculation inadvertently replaced state dollars with local dollars.

The Senate also approved budget legislation that would restore some past spending cuts for the state's higher education system.

The vote yesterday was 28-12 on a bill adding $47 million in new spending to the state's current budget and the one for the next fiscal year that begins in July. Both annual budgets total more than $16 billion.

The bill includes $18 million for state universities to reverse cuts made in their operating budgets in 2016.

The measure goes next to the House. The House approved its own legislation Saturday and negotiators for the two chambers expect to draft the final version of the budget bill this week.