Some GOP lawmakers in Kansas looking to cut school funding

(AP) — Some top Republican legislators in Kansas are looking to cut aid to public schools significantly to help close a hole in the state budget, a move that would fly in the face of past state Supreme Court rulings on education funding.

Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Carolyn McGinn, a Sedgwick Republican, said Friday that she's drafting a bill to cut spending to close the projected $342 million shortfall in the state's budget.

Brownback has instead proposed liquidating a state investment fund and using the cash to back internal government borrowing to be paid back over seven years.

Talk of cutting education funding comes as Brownback, legislators and educators await a decision from the Kansas Supreme Court on whether the state is spending enough money on its public schools to provide an adequate education to every child.

The state has struggled to balance its budget since Republican legislators slashed income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at Brownback's urging in what even some GOP voters now view as a failed attempt to stimulate the economy.