State legislative leaders are understandably mad about the prospect of having to pay the legal fees of the coalition of school districts that sued the state over school funding. The school district’s legal team reportedly has offered to walk away from a separate federal lawsuit if the state pays the legal costs, which could be a couple million dollars.
“The whole thing is outrageous,” said outgoing House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka. Of course, taxpayers will end up paying no matter what — either with their tax dollars that went to the school districts or with their tax dollars that stayed with the state.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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10 Comments
The state should never have been sued by school districts. We have a legislative process where the state budget is approved. If we don’t think the legislature spends enough money in a certain area, we can replace the legislature. It is outrageous that a court sets a budget.
The state should not pay any legal fees in this case.
And for some strange reason there is a 300 Million dollar budget surplus. So, it looks like all of those on the side of the lawsuit were just impatient.
I hate to see any government issues ruled by lawsuits. The voice of the many that are elected are in my opinion better suited to discuss the issue than a single Judge.
This sounds like a form of blackmail. If the lawsuit they filed in federal court was so important and the right thing to do then why would they drop it for their legal fees?
This goes to show you the lawsuits are truly about the money and have absolutely nothing to do with the children.
The attorneys need to go back to their little private corporation they created with a handful of superintendents and get the corporation to pay the money. This is the same corporation that felt they did not have to disclose their records to the public under the open records act.
Remember that one of the things the money paid for was for an attorney to read a book written by one of the state school board members even though the book had nothing to do with the lawsuit.
The school districts have so much excess money that they are still building things such as the brand new ball diamond for Southeast High School. The schools had said the money was needed in the classrooms for the teachers in the children. Yet another one of their let’s say it’s for one thing to the public but do something else with it once we have it.
The state should not pay these attorneys and let them continue with the lawsuit if they want to carry on with it and not be paid a dime for it.
My greatest fear here is that the education-hating conservatives who control the House will use this as an excuse for not funding maintenance at Regents’ institutions.
May God never allow Alan Rupe and his band of robbers to collect one dime from the taxpayers of Kansas.
Heres an idea. why don’t the superintendents of the 19 school districts that formed “Schools for Fair Funding” pass the hat around and take up a collection for the legal fees.
Does anybody else see the absurdity here. Suing the taxpayers of Kansas to extort more money for Schools and then demanding that the taxpayers pay their legal fee. All the while claiming some nonexistent legal standing that shields “Schools for Fair Funding” from having their records made public. Outragous!
Like I said at the beginning, may they never collect dime one. That way, the next time somebody gets the bright idea to sue the State for more funding for their special interest, they may have a hard time finding a Lawyer to take their case.
“nonexistent legal standing”? Let’s let the Courts decide that.
“”nonexistent legal standing”? Let’s let the Courts decide that.”
The courts have already decided that 2 months ago. SFF is a public entity and it’s records are open.
Isn’t it factual that if a person sues a regular industry, the loser has to pay the cost of legal fees?
So why would this be any different?
That is the case in Britain, political_mom, but not here in America.
Anyway, the real loser in this case is the current crop of schoolchildren in Kansas. We are lead to believe that this extra spednding will fix schools, when it is unlikely to do so.
Compounding the problem is the belief that since this spending will fix everything, the truly needed reforms are not pursued.
Will the children in the state of Kansas who receive a defective education be able to sue?
The schools are part of the government either way taxpayers pay the legal bills wether thru school taxes or state taxes.