News in Brief: A State Capitals Roundup

A challenge to the method Kansas uses to finance public education should not be thrown out of federal court, a federal judge in Wichita, Kan., has ruled.

In a Sept. 14 ruling, U.S. District Judge Monti L. Belot denied two motions by the state to dismiss a lawsuit filed by 22 students in the Salina and Dodge City districts. The state had argued that federal court was not a proper forum for the dispute.

The suit claims that the state's 1992 school finance law denies minority students and those with disabilities their fair share of federal funds coming to the state, violating federal...