Topeka ? Conservative Republicans failed Thursday to override Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ veto of funding for a program that helps pregnant women, as lawmakers ended the 2004 legislative session.

As expected, there was no last-ditch effort to increase school funding.

The Legislature ended the session deadlocked on whether to raise taxes for schools. Now legislators — many of whom face re-election this fall — await a Kansas Supreme Court decision on a lower court ruling that said the state’s school finance system was unconstitutional because it underfunded and shortchanged minority students.

But Thursday, the Legislature did deal with one education issue: reapproving a regents bill.

Because of a mistake, Sebelius was given the wrong bill to sign into law, so the Legislature had to redo its actions.

The regents bill contained numerous provisions related to the operation of Kansas institutions of higher education, including one needed to avoid millions of dollars in payments to the federal government.

The Legislature quickly approved the corrected version, sending it to Sebelius for her signature.

On the pregnancy measure, the House rejected Sebelius’ veto 88-24, giving override supporters four more votes than the two-thirds majority needed.

But the vote in the Senate was 23-13, four votes shy of the two-thirds majority. The vote was reached after a slew of parliamentary maneuvers and failed pleas from conservatives for more time to get several absent conservative senators back to Topeka.

Sen. Robert Tyson, R-Parker, said he thought conservatives had been “railroaded.”

But Senate Majority Leader Lana Oleen, R-Manhattan, said there was no reason to wait. “People made a decision to be here or not be here,” she said.

Senate President Dave Kerr, R-Hutchinson, then put the override effort mathematically out of reach by switching his vote and sustaining Sebelius’ veto.

Under the program, the state provided $300,000 in grants that had to be matched to provide pregnancy-related services.

Supporters of the spending said the grants helped reduce the number of low-birthweight babies by providing prenatal care to women.

“The few dollars we are spending here is very effective,” said Sen. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, adding that last year, the program helped 700 women.

Sebelius vetoed the funding, saying the organizations that received it also were funded by other sources, while many health care programs were competing for limited dollars.

But supporters of the 4-year-old program said it had a solid record, while there were other new budget items — such as $250,000 for a smoking cessation program for pregnant women — that had no record.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline, a Republican, issued a statement expressing disappointment in the veto.

While a state legislator, Kline was instrumental in starting the program.

“The amount of financial support from the private sector far exceeds the investment requested from the state. It is disturbing that Gov. Sebelius has turned what was once a bipartisan effort into a partisan issue,” he said.

The House attempted two more overrides of other Sebelius vetoes, but both fell short.

One was to overturn Sebelius’ veto of $200,000 for a new white-collar crime unit in Kline’s office, while the other veto dealt with $674,005 for renovations to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation’s lab in Great Bend.