Topeka ? Three school finance proposals failed in the House in two days, raising uncertainty about where members stand on education funding issues.

Two proposals would have redistributed some of the state’s $3 billion-plus in aid to its public schools. The third would have guaranteed that schools would have seen at least a modest increase in state aid for the 2009-10 school year.

“We’ve decided we’re going to approach these problems with a divide-and-conquer philosophy, which causes a lot of hard feelings,” House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, a Greensburg Democrat, said after a vote Thursday.

But House Education Chairman Clay Aurand, a Courtland Republican, said his panel still is working on funding legislation and is likely to produce a bill. He said many House members want more time – and want the committee to thoroughly examine any proposals.

His Senate counterpart, Jean Schodorf, was more amused than upset by the House’s actions.

“The House usually dumps the first education bills,” said Schodorf, a Wichita Republican. “They’re a little bit feisty.”

One aid-redistribution proposal failed Wednesday, along with the proposed guarantee of a funding increase. On Thursday, the House voted 63-62 against the second aid-redistribution proposal.

The Senate approved a bill last week to set aside $37 million for the 2009-10 school year to increase basic state aid by $59 per pupil, to $4,492.

Because increasing basic state aid leads to higher teacher salaries, the state also would face higher teacher pension costs. Those costs, $28 million, would bring the total commitment to $65 million, a 2.2 percent increase in aid.

McKinney offered the Senate’s plan as an amendment Wednesday to one of the aid-redistribution bills, but the House voted 67-53 against. All opposition came from Republicans.

The result surprised McKinney because the proposal had strong bipartisan support in the Senate. It passed there, 37-2.

“It was just a very modest way of saying we don’t want to slide backward,” McKinney said.

In 2005 and 2006, legislators approved school finance plans covering four years, ending with the 2008-09 school year, to comply with Kansas Supreme Court orders on education funding.

State aid for schools in 2008-09 is expected to be $892 million more than it was in 2004-05, or almost 39 percent higher. It would total $3.2 billion.

Supporters of the Senate plan – and McKinney’s amendment – argue that guaranteeing an increase a year ahead of time will help schools plan.

But Aurand opposes the idea: “If something comes along to tell me where the money comes from, I’ll like it more.”

McKinney offered his amendment to a bill that would rewrite the rules that determine how the state distributes money to school districts with 200 or fewer students.

House members, who didn’t have a detailed explanation of how the bill would affect each of the state’s 296 districts, refused to give it first-round approval.

They had detailed data on how the second aid-redistribution plan would shift $3.1 million of $33 million in aid for programs to help students who are at risk of failing.

Some legislators say the current formula isn’t “smooth,” meaning a district could lose a few at-risk pupils and see its aid decrease significantly.

But the bill would have shifted the money from 37 small and medium-sized districts to 12 other districts.