The Kentucky Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Thursday that Governor Matt Bevin [official website] did not have the authority to unilaterally cut the budget for state universities. The ruling came after a lawsuit [JURIST report] was filed by Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear [official website]. The 5-2 decision reverses a lower court ruling, which found that Bevin did have the authority to make such cuts. After Bevin took office, he requested a 4.5 percent cut across Kentucky’s state budget. However, after failing to gain the state legislature’ss support, Bevin issued [WUKY report] an order imposing the cuts on the state university and community college system.

Education funding has led to numerous legal challenges across the US. The Supreme Court of Washington last year ordered [JURIST report] the state to pay a fine of $100,000 per day for each day that it fails to comply with a previous court ruling mandating adequate funding of public schools. Also in August of last year the US Senate passed a bill [JURIST report] to revamp the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. The US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled [JURIST report] in July of last year in favor of tight regulations pointed at the for-profit college industry. The court ruled that the Education Department has the right to demand that schools show that their graduates are financially dependent enough to repay their student loans. In August 2014 a judge for a Travis County Civil Court in Texas ruled [JURIST report] that the Texas legislature failed to meet its constitutional duty to provide for Texas public schools because the school finance system is structured, operated, and funded so that it cannot provide a constitutionally reasonable education for all Texas schoolchildren.