July 7, 2005
Special Session: Final Report
Should we fund our schools or destroy the judiciary?
(Just what were we called to do?)
Well, we thought the idea of this special session was to respond
to the Court order to appropriately fund our schools. After all,
the state had lost the school finance lawsuit both before Judge
Terry Bullock and then before the Kansas Supreme Court. The Court
reviewed the efforts of the Legislature in the 2005 regular session
and determined that they had not done enough to meet their ruling.
So on June 3, they gave the legislature specific directions –
add another $143 million by July 11.
So naturally, after the heads of conservative Republicans stopped
spinning around, they crafted their solution to the problem –
gut the Supreme Court of any power or authority and then leave the
schools underfunded.
There were six constitutional amendments offered in the House and
Senate over the course of the special session.
Over in the more extremist House they had:
- HCR 5001: Make Supreme Court justices elected officials and
subject to the political whims of the day,
- HCR 5002: Constitutionally prohibit school finance lawsuits
by removing jurisdiction over financing public education from
the state courts, and
- HCR 5003: Prohibit the courts from issuing an order that includes
money.
The Senate amendments included:
- SCR 1602: Remove the word “suitable” from the constitution,
- SCR 1603: Prohibit the courts from issuing an order that includes
money (the same as HCR 5002 in the House), and
- SCR 1604: Prohibit the court from blocking school funding if
the legislature refused to implement a court order under the education
article.
In the end, none of the proposed amendments passed thanks to a
coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans in the House.
But, as we reported throughout this special session, the refusal
of House Democrats and moderate Republicans to go along with the
conservative Republican plans to cripple the courts led directly
to…
The Hostage Crisis!
Boy, was Doug Mays (R-Topeka) ever mad! Mays, the conservative
Speaker of the House spent the bulk of the session plotting how
to defy the Supreme Court, stop funding increases for schools, and
ultimately strip the Kansas courts of any authority.
He began his attack on schools when, at the start of the 2005 regular
session, he appointed a “Select Committee on School Finance”
and loaded it with loyalist conservatives. Not a moderate among
them, the committee was led by Kathe Decker (R-Clay Center) and
Mike O’Neal (R-Hutchinson). They were supported by Lana Gordon
(R-Topeka), Willa DeCastro (R-Wichita), Ray Merrick (R-Stilwell),
and Gary Hayzlett (R-Lakin). These six steamrolled over the three
Democrats on the committee – Bruce Larkin (D-Baileyville),
Marti Crow (D-Leavenworth), and Valdenia Winn (D-Kansas City). Every
vote was 6-3.
Mays and his conservative block publicly expressed their intent
to defy the Court order in the days leading up to the special session.
As a result, there was no plan to meet the order from House Republican
leadership. The only plan was to harm the Court in some way.
Their first chance came with Senate passage of SCR 1603. Mays brought
the resolution to the House floor but faced a determined group of
Democrats who were joined by moderate Republicans in opposing the
amendment. It failed to receive the constitutional majority necessary
and was relegated to the dustbin.
It was then that Mays took our children and our schools hostage.
He announced there would be no vote on school finance until he got
his amendment. Period.
But fortunately for schools…
There were heroes in the Senate
As Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt (R-Independence) put it,
"The key here is the court showed respect for the legislature,
and now the legislature needs to show respect for the court. There's
no reason to wait. We know what the choices are. We need to pass
a school finance bill."
And Schmidt was true to those words.
Senate President Steve Morris (R-Hugoton), Vice President John
Vratil (R-Leawood), Education Committee Chair Jean Schodorf (R-Wichita)
and Schmidt got together with Minority Leader Anthony Hensley (D-Topeka)
and Assistant Minority Leader Janis Lee (D-Smith Center) and cooperatively
crafted a bipartisan school finance plan to meet the Court order.
At $160 million it emphasized the needs of all schools –
rural, suburban, nd urban – and the needs of all children.
The resolve of Democrats and moderate Republicans in the Senate
resulted in the passage of Senate Bill 3 on the second day of the
special session. The bill was sent to the House for consideration.
It was beginning to look like a short special session until…
O’Neal, Decker, and Mays gut the Senate plan
Remember, the House conservatives planned from the outset to defy
the Court. So they sent SB 3 to the Select Committee on School Finance
where Mike O’Neal gutted out every provision of the original
Senate plan and inserted his own version of school finance.
O’Neal’s announced plan was to strike every school funding provision
in the bill. So...nothing for rural Kansas, nothing for urban Kansas, nothing
for Johnson County, nothing at all for anybody.
While claiming to plan to vote for school funding, O’Neal was asked
by Valdenia Winn what his plan was. His response? To get rid of every funding
aspect of the Senate plan.
And to top things off, he reinstated the items stayed by the Supreme
Court from HB 2247 and his much despised “suitability”
language that dumbs down education. The Select Committee, over the
protests of the Democrats, sent an $11 million school finance plan
to the Senate floor.
But…
There were heroes in the House
Sensing that House leadership was leading them on the path to disaster,
pro-public education moderate Republicans rallied to the aid of
schools. Together with the Democrats, they crushed the Select Committee’s
Substitute for SB 3 on the floor, sending O’Neal and Decker
back to piece together an alternative.
As it turned out, the next one was not much better than the first.
This time it was up to $83 million but it maintained all of the
odious features of the first bill. For added measure O’Neal
inserted a “reverse severability” clause under which
if one part of the bill were to be declared unconstitutional, it
all would be and he made the enactment date, the day the Court dismisses
the finance lawsuit. These two amendments guaranteed that the money
in the bill would never get to schools.
And that’s when the moderate House Republicans got their MoJo going.
Led by Ward Loyd (R-Garden City), Bill Light (R-Rolla), and Ed
O’Malley (R-Roeland Park), a group of 15 Republicans crafted
a school finance plan that would be good for Kansas from Morton
County to Johnson County (hence the MoJo Plan).
Joining Light, Loyd, and O’Malley at a press conference announcing
the plan were: Pat Colloton (R-Leawood), Barbara Craft (R-Junction
City), Don Hill (R-Emporia), Terrie Huntington (R-Mission Hills),
Jeff Jack (R-Parsons), Dan Johnson (R-Hays), Ed O’Malley (R-Roeland
Park), Tim Owens (R-Overland Park), Jo Ann Pottorff (R-Wichita),
Stephanie Sharp (R-Lenexa), Tom Sloan (R-Lawrence) and Jim Yonally
(R-Overland Park).
Of course, getting the plan to the floor was another challenge.
Conservatives won’t give up; Hostage crisis drags on
Over the next days of the session, Mays continued to block any
effort to bring MoJo to the House and refused to give on his beloved
constitutional amendment.
Moderate Republicans and Democrats held firm as well, refusing
to approve a constitutional amendment and killing the second O’Neal/Decker
plan.
It was then that Clay Aurand (R-Courtland), a Mays Lieutenant,
brought out his school finance plan. The Aurand plan, not much better
than the O’Neal/Decker plans, was amended to include a “hard
trigger” provision. This provision, brought by Steve Brunk
(R-Wichita), tied enactment of the finance bill to passage of Mays’
constitutional amendment.
The Aurand plan, with the Brunk amendment, passed the House.
At the same time, the Senate Heroes were working with the House
MoJo Heroes to create a new Senate bill that would actually respond
to the Courts. This effort became Senate Sub for HB 2004.
Then the Court chimed in
With the hostage crisis continuing and the House conservatives
refusing to budge, the deadline for the legislature to finish their
work – July 1st – passed. And on July 2, the hammer
came down.
The Supreme Court directed the parties in the lawsuit to appear
on July 8 and give them reasons to not cut off funding for schools
since the legislature had failed to do their work.
Tensions were running high. Senators Schodorf, Vratil and Lee who
were negotiating with Representatives O’Neal, Decker, and
Larkin on an education conference committee were holding firm to
removing any link between passage of a constitutional amendment
and school funding. In the House, Democrats were not budging on
their opposition to constitutional amendments and more Republicans
were joining them. The session was locked in a stalemate and around
6:30 pm both chambers decided to leave Topeka and take a three day
cooling off period.
July 6 – Hostage Crisis Ends!
The Senate moderate and Democratic coalition held firm.
The House moderate and Democratic coalition held firm.
With the July 8 hearing looming, even Mays, Decker, and O’Neal
realize the only way out is by cutting the constitutional amendment
loose. On the afternoon of July 6, Mays finally relents and Decker
and O’Neal drop the hard trigger from school finance negotiations.
At this point, the Senators and MoJo coalition have reduced their
original plan from $160 million to $148.4 million but they haven’t
given up on the way to spend the money. The plan coming out of the
education conference committee looks like a slightly reduced version
of the original SB 3 passed way back on June 23. Everyone agrees
to try a different constitutional amendment – one stopping
the court from closing schools.
The House is the first to take up the school funding plan and it
passes with little debate. The vote is 75-48. Even Decker and O’Neal
voted yes. But not Doug Mays.
The Senate approved the plan 26-11.
And the last constitutional amendment? SCR 1604 passed the Senate
29-9 (27 votes required) and failed in the House 74-49 (84 votes
required).
At 11:41 pm, the special session was over. Our schools got the
funding they need and our constitution was held harmless.
To see what your
school district will receive under the plan, go to click here!
To read any bill on line, go to the Kansas
Legislative Service Web Page
Type in the bill number, click on “search.”
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