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Kansas Officials Want School Funding Ruling Put On Hold

cinderellasg, flickr Creative Commons

Kansas' attorney general is asking the state's highest court to put on hold a lower court's decision that would provide roughly $50 million more in aid to school districts this week.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt filed the request Monday with the Kansas Supreme Court. Schmidt said the three-judge district court panel's decision to invalidate key parts of an education funding law was "unprecedented."

The Shawnee County District Court panel's decision ordered Kansas to provide more money to districts using the state's previous school funding formula.

The new school funding law took effect in April and scrapped the old per-student formula for distributing aid in favor of predictable grants for each districts. The lower-court panel said the changes violated the state constitution by not providing equal educational opportunities for all students.

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