(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers June 13, 2016)
Things got pretty simple last week on this school finance foul-up.
Remember, Democratic leaders stood outside Gov. Sam Brownback’s office threatening to have legislators petition to call a special session of the Legislature to begin Monday, June 20, to fix the portion of the school finance formula that the Kansas Supreme Court has held unconstitutional—and so egregious that the high court would shut down schools on July 1 if it isn’t fixed.
That was good for some photographs and news coverage…except that just Wednesday, Brownback called the special session on his own order…signing a piece of paper telling the Legislature to show up, presumably in clean shirts…at 8 a.m. Thursday, June 23, to knock out whatever is needed to prevent the court from closing schools.
Look at it from the long view, and Brownback probably made the right call.