title:  Kansas GOP Will Undercut State Supreme Court Before Fixing Education Budget As Ordered
text: Kansas  education system is a mess, thanks to the Republican-led legislature s budget cuts. Funding allocation is heavily biased against poorer schools, and the state s Supreme Court ordered the legislature to fix it so it was both fair and in line with the state s constitution. So what are these Republicans doing instead? They re looking for ways to undermine the Supreme Court instead of doing their jobs.The Kansas Supreme Court said that all schools would remain closed across the state until the legislature fixed the funding problems. They re supposed to meet on June 23, ahead of the June 30 deadline set by the court, to work on the issue.However, in a move that s oh-so-typical of crooked Republicans, they re going to meet next week to discuss an amendment to the state constitution to limit the power of the court, instead of understanding that they screwed up and putting forth an honest effort to fix education funding.The House and Senate Judiciary Committees will put their heads together and plot this out next week. The plan? Find a way to stop the court from ever halting funding in the future. They re wrapping the issue in the pretty paper of  the people of Kansas should be deciding this, not the courts,  and tying it neatly with a satin bow of  we need to have discussions on this, not court orders. In other words, they re sounding the GOP s trumpet of alarm on what they think is a runaway court system because the courts aren t doing what they want.What they re not thinking about (and they re Republicans so why would they?) is all the innocent students, teachers and administrators caught up in this. Special education students, for instance, could see some necessary summer classes cancelled if the schools lose their funding, along with federal funding.The state is mandated to evaluate students with disabilities and create individual education programs that fit their needs, and, for some students, that includes summer school in order to ensure they continue to progress throughout the entire year.There are also teachers who are starting to look for jobs out of state because they ve had it with Republicans  inability to do anything for the people. One teacher said: They need to do what the kids do  sit down and solve a problem. That would be so nice if they did. But, in light of the GOP s political crusade against the courts, they d rather hamstring their state courts than actually solve the problem. Of course, they ve acknowledged that this amendment, if it went through, wouldn t affect the current crisis. However, it could ensure that the courts have a harder time addressing future funding problems that hurt innocent people.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images