Topeka ? The Kansas House on Wednesday rejected a bill that would have drastically limited the ability of teachers unions to negotiate contracts, and instead gave first-round approval to a compromise alternative that had been negotiated among various education groups.

The 67-52 vote in favor of the compromise plan was seen as a rare victory for education groups in a Legislature dominated by conservatives. But it remained to be seen whether that coalition, made up mainly of Democrats and moderate Republicans, can hold together through the rest of the session.

“What it means, at this point for me, is that a majority of the members of the House think that it’s a good idea for teachers, administrators and school boards to work together collaboratively, and I think that’s an important vote,” said Mark Dessetti, lobbyist for the Kansas National Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.

The issue over changing the terms of the Professional Negotiations Act dates back to 2013, when lawmakers considered proposals that would have made dramatic changes to the list of items that districts are currently required to negotiate with teachers unions.

At that time, though, Republican leaders agreed to put the issue aside while the various lobby groups that represent teachers, school boards, superintendents and administrators worked out a compromise.

That process took the better part of two years, and in January the groups announced they had reached an agreement.

But many conservatives were dissatisfied with that agreement, arguing that it continued to limit the ability of school boards to make personnel policy decisions on their own, without having to negotiate them with teachers unions.

The original bill that came to the floor of the House Wednesday was backed by the conservative think tank Kansas Policy Institute.

It would have repealed language in current statutes that gives teachers unions exclusive rights to negotiate collectively on behalf of all teachers and would have allowed any individual teacher to negotiate separately for his or her own contract.

But Rep. Sue Boldra, R-Hays, offered what is known in the Legislature as a “gut-and-go” amendment, striking all of the language out of the original bill and replacing it entirely with language from another bill representing the negotiated compromise.

“This plan would set education back 40 years,” Boldra said of the original bill. “All the gains that education and educators have made would be erased.”

But Rep. Mark Hutton, R-Wichita, said the original bill wasn’t about the content of the negotiations. Rather, he said, it was about eliminating the exclusive authority of unions to conduct the negotiations.

“There are a lot of teachers out there that are not members or ascribe to the philosophies of the unions that they’re being forced, because of this exclusive bargaining right, to fall under that contract,” Hutton said. “They want to have their own voice, and I believe they should have that.”

The House is expected to take final action on the bill Thursday. If it passes, it will go to the Senate, which has two bills of its own dealing with the same subject.

One is similar to the compromise bill that advanced in the House. Another would limit negotiations only to the subjects of salaries and wages.