Shawnee Mission Says Kansas School Financing Plan Hurting Schools

. (AP) – The Shawnee Mission School District, which is blocked from joining a school finance lawsuit, has filed a brief in the case calling the state’s funding policy “crippling.”

The Kansas City Star reports (http://bit.ly/1L3INgc ) the Kansas Supreme Court last month affirmed a lower court ruling that Shawnee Mission could not intervene in the school finance lawsuit against the state brought by the Kansas City, Kansas, Wichita, Dodge City and Hutchinson districts.

The district was told it could file a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, Gannon v. Kansas. The district’s brief released Thursday says underfunding of the state’s school finance system “has led to a crippling loss of teachers,” foreign language program, neighborhood schools and property values.

The Supreme Court hears oral arguments in November on whether Kansas schools are equitably funded.