TOPEKA ? Kansas lawmakers began debating a bill Monday that calls for the most sweeping changes since 1992 in the way Kansas funds its public schools, with plans for both chambers to vote on the bill later this week.

Representatives from several school districts and other education groups lined up in the House Appropriations Committee to testify against the bill, which would repeal the 1992 school finance formula and replace it with a system of “block grants” for the next two years while lawmakers try to craft a new formula.

“While I’m confident that this committee values high quality education and wants to sustain our system, this bill that’s before you does nothing to advance that end,” said Kansas City, Kan., school superintendent Cynthia Lane.

Only three groups testified in favor of the bill: the Kansas Chamber; the conservative think tank Kansas Policy Institute; and the grassroots libertarian group Kansans for Liberty, whose lobbying team includes Keen Umbehr, the 2014 Libertarian candidate for governor.

“This formula’s been around since 1992,” said KPI vice president James Franko. “I think it’s time we revisit it, and if the block grant is the way that gets the Legislature to force that issue and to have that discussion, I think that is appropriate.”

But Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, said she doesn’t believe that’s a valid reason for scrapping the formula, and she said all the evidence from the Lawrence school district indicates the current formula is working.

“My constituents do not see a major problem with the finance (law) of 1992,” Ballard said. “What they do see is we have not continued the funding the way we indicated we would.”

The bill, which was only released to the public Thursday evening, would do away with the existing per-pupil funding formula and instead fund all districts with a block grant roughly equal to what they are supposed to receive this year. The new formula would apply to the current school year, which is already three-fourths over, and to each of the next two years.

But many districts, including Lawrence, would see substantial cuts in their overall funding, mainly because of changes in the way the new formula calculates equalization aid for capital outlay and local option budgets.

Districts levy separate property taxes for those budgets. Capital outlay is used for big-ticket purchases like furniture, equipment and building repair. Local option budgets are the additional revenue districts can collect to supplement the general aid they receive from the state.

Equalization aid is a method the state uses to subsidize those budgets for districts that have less property value per student than other districts.

The proposed bill cuts the amount of equalization aid the state provides this year and for the next two years. Supporters of the bill say that’s because the cost of equalization aid this year turned out to be about $56 million more than they had expected.

The Lawrence district would lose about $1.6 million of local option budget equalization under the proposal, compared with what the district had expected to receive when it adopted the current year’s budget in August. Lawrence does not qualify for capital outlay equalization.

Lawmakers agreed to add more equalization money last year in response to an order from the Kansas Supreme Court.

Statewide, the bill calls for cutting the this year’s appropriation for LOB and capital outlay equalization by $51.9 million, according to the Kansas State Department of Education. Supporters of the bill say that’s still $138 million more than the state provided for the 2013-2014 school year, before the Supreme Court ruled that equalization was unconstitutionally underfunded.

The House committee is expected to vote as early as Tuesday to send the bill to the full House.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to hold hearings on an identical bill Tuesday, with a possible vote to send it to the full Senate as early as Wednesday or Thursday.