Topeka ? A Senate panel has endorsed a plan to raise annual education funding by $455 million, although the proposal does not say where the state will get much of that money.

The plan, endorsed Tuesday by the Education Committee, calls for phasing in the increase over three years and relying on existing state revenues and cash reserves for the first year. The plan does not identify funding sources for the second or third years or beyond.

Still, it is the first proposal to emerge from committee in either chamber in response to a ruling issued by the Kansas Supreme Court, ordering legislators to improve on the state’s $2.7 billion in education funding and distribute the money more fairly. The court told legislators to approve a plan by April 12.

“It’s been brutal, but the committee did good work,” said Senate Education Chairwoman Jean Schodorf, R-Wichita.

Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, said the Senate could debate the package this week.

The plan would increase funding for the 2005-06 school year by $165.6 million. Base aid to all 301 school districts would rise, along with spending on bilingual and special education and programs targeting poor children. The total increase would be the largest since the current school finance formula was adopted in 1992.

Spending would increase an additional $147.6 million in year two and $142 million in year three.

However, Schodorf said those amounts could drop, depending on the outcome of further legislative analysis of education costs.

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley said the while the spending proposals were attractive and appeared to address the court’s ruling, he questioned whether the state can keep the commitments.

“This is a hollow shell of a plan to me. The Legislature is notorious for saying that we’re going to fund this or that, but we never do,” said Hensley, D-Topeka.

Schodorf said she hopes the Senate can find a steady source of revenue for the second and third years of the package — and perhaps even the first — before adjourning in early May.

She said the plan would leave the state with about $125 million in reserves at the end of fiscal year 2006, which begins July 1.

Meanwhile, the House Select Committee on School Finance concluded two days of hearings on Tuesday on its own $102 million package, which also relies on existing state revenues. That committee is expected to endorse the plan Wednesday, setting up debate next week in the House.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has reservations all proposals that have been introduced so far but will look at whatever plans the Legislature develops, spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran said.

“Without the financial resources to put it in place, it doesn’t make sense. She doesn’t believe the courts and the kids of Kansas would approve of any plan that lacks funding,” Corcoran said.

Last year, Sebelius proposed her own three-year, $310 million funding package, financed by increases in sales, income and property taxes. The plan was rejected by legislators.

In other action:

— Having decided to gamble on a potential U.S. Supreme Court decision, senators on adopted a resolution urging that court to resurrect the state’s capital punishment law. A Kansas Supreme Court decision in December struck the law down.

— The House Health and Human Services Committee endorsed a bill making it illegal to sell drugs imported from Canada or other foreign nations.

— The Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed a proposal to prevent people from suing restaurants and food makers and distributors over obesity or other weight-related health problems.