Today – Thursday, June 23rd – marked the first day in a Legislative Special Session that will surely be one for the history books.

The state Supreme Court gave Legislators a June 30th deadline, the last day of the fiscal year, to fix the funding or face the prospect of schools across the state closing.

In day one, House and Senate leaders worked together and advanced bills that would cut school funding by one-half percent and recycle those dollars, along with other funds, to provide the $38 million Governor Brownback previously referenced in the days before this special session in equity school funding.

On Friday, Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 2001 – identical measures – will face off for possible votes before the full House and Senate.

Both bills would cut all school districts by an equal one-half percent and then trickle those funds, along with other funds, into Local Option Budget aid, to provide property tax relief in poor districts.

Many superintendents, notably from Wichita, Blue Valley, Olathe and Shawnee Mission, testified in favor of the proposal even though some of them may lose funding.

Others, like Kansas City USD 500 urged legislators to find other options rather than across the board cutting all schools.

The half-percent cut to all schools would total $13 million dollars, and the bill would be funded by using $10.5 million in tobacco lawsuit settlement funds, and reducing extraordinary needs funding by $7.2 million; which leaves $8 million, using $4.1 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and lowering virtual school aid by $2.8 million.

The measure was approved with a 9-2 vote by the Senate Ways and Means Committee and OK’d by the House Appropriations Committee on a non-recorded voice vote.

Outside, protestors could be heard chanting:  “Fix this mess.”