TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has struck down a stopgap law for funding the state’s public schools, saying it left poor districts $54 million short.

The justices ruled Thursday that the Republican-backed law enacted last year doesn’t comply with the Kansas Constitution. The court gave lawmakers until the end of June to write a new law.

The ruling came in a lawsuit that four districts have been pursuing since 2010. The Supreme Court has yet to decide on the larger question of whether Kansas must boost its education spending by at least $548 million a year.

Lawmakers approved the 2015 law as temporary fix. The law replaced a per-student formula for distributing more than $4 billion a year to school in favor of stable “block grants.”

“In a courageous and well-reasoned opinion, the Supreme Court of Kansas has once again ruled that the state legislature is not meeting its constitutional obligation to Kansas public schools. Kansas educators have been working harder than ever to deal with the realities of irresponsible tax cuts, the corresponding revenue decline and the increase in need these policies have produced,” Kansas NEA President Mark Farr said in response to Thursday’s ruling.

(AP and Post)