Debate Over School Finances Deteriorates in Kansas

By Lonnie Harp

The school-finance problems that have preoccupied a number of state legislatures in the past two years descended on Kansas last week like a prairie tornado, leaving lawmakers a day before their session's end unsure how the matter would be resolved, and where--and on whom--the fallout would land.

Although they have been studying the education-finance situation since last October, when a state judge indicated that substantial changes were needed to balance the scales between wealthy and poor school districts, nothing prepared politicians in the state capital for last week's events. Many veteran lawmakers were left wondering whether they had met their match in the tangled finance-reform issue.

"It's an interesting study in how representative government works, or does not work at times, especially when you get into one of these bottlenecks,'' said Senator Jerry Karr, the leader of the Senate's Democratic minority. "We don't want to end up like Texas with endless special sessions, but it looks like we may be...