Topeka ? Two days after more than 1,000 Kansans rallied at the Statehouse to oppose more budget cuts to public schools, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee voted on Thursday to cut more than $172 million in school funding.

The vote was along party lines — Republicans recommending the cuts; Democrats in opposition.

From left to right J.G. Scott, with the Kansas Legislative Research Department, state Rep. Clay Aurand, R-Courtland, and state Rep. Joe McLeland, R-Wichita, confer during a meeting Wednesday of the House Education Budget Committee at the Capitol. Republicans voted to slash school funding further.

The committee recommendation will go to the full House. House Republican leaders have said they want to balance the state budget without increasing taxes.

The state has cut $1 billion in spending over the past year, including about $300 million from schools, and legislators still face a nearly $500 million revenue shortfall in the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Democrats, led by Gov. Mark Parkinson, and Republican leaders in the Senate support increasing taxes, but no specific plan has gained any traction.

Under the House Republican recommendation, general state aid to schools would be cut $86 million. Another $86 million would be taken from supplemental aid, which helps poorer districts. And the proposal would cut a $33 million increase that Parkinson had built into his budget.

Mark Tallman, a lobbyist with the Kansas Association of School Boards, said the way the cuts are proposed would hurt the poorest districts the most. “It seems extremely unwise public policy,” he said.