Topeka ? A bill that calls for sweeping changes in the way Kansas funds its public schools is headed to the floor of the House, barely four days after the bill was first introduced to the public.

A voice vote Tuesday in the House Appropriations Committee sent the bill to the full house.

Republican leaders in the House said they hope to have a vote on the bill before the end of the week.

And in a maneuver designed to speed the process even more, the House Appropriations Committee put the contents of the bill into a Senate bill — a maneuver known as a “gut-and-go” — allowing the possibility that the Senate may only vote up or down on the House proposal without a full floor debate in the upper chamber.

Rep. Ron Ryckman Jr., left, and Sen. Ty Masterson say passage of the school finance overhaul bill is key to finishing a tax plan and overall state budget for the next two years.

“I think there’s a time you have to clean the state and begin over again,” said Rep. Marvin Kleeb, R-Overland Park, a supporter of the bill. “Currently the state has a financing formula, or a financing scheme, that mandates and micromanages funds within silos. It does not provide flexibility. This lack of flexibility leaves hundreds of millions of dollars every year unused in contingency funds.”

The bill would repeal the school finance system that has been in place since 1992. In its place, for the rest of this year and the next two years, it would provide “block grants” to school districts that combine several different kinds of funding schools currently get into one pot, which is meant to give districts more flexibility over how they spend the money.

But it also reduces some of the so-called “equalization” aid that less wealthy districts get to subsidize their local option budgets, used for general operating expenses, and their capital outlay budgets that are used for big-ticket purchases such as new furniture, equipment or building repairs.

The bill was authored primarily by Rep. Ron Ryckman Jr., R-Overland Park, and Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Augusta, who chair the House and Senate budget committees. During a news conference Monday, they said passage of the bill is key to putting together the rest of the state budget, as well as any tax bill that may be necessary to fund next year’s budget.

“When this bill is passed, we’ll be able to plug a number into that number-one expenditure that we have, and we’ll have certainty there,” Ryckman said. “Then we try to balance the budget at that point. We’re kind of at a standstill between what we do on revenues and what we do on expenditures. This will solidify over half of our expenditures.”

Gov. Sam Brownback called for such a plan in his State of the State address in January. But it took GOP leaders until last Thursday, March 5, to introduce a bill, and another day after that for the Kansas State Department of Education to produce numbers showing how each district would be affected.

“I’m really very disappointed in the speed of this bill,” said Rep. Jerry Henry, D-Atchison, the ranking minority member on the House panel. “It’s been 20 business hours since this bill was released for notification and to look at.”

Democratic leaders said the block grant bill effectively locks each district’s existing funding in place for the next two years, which means they won’t be able to respond to enrollment growth or changes in demographics such as rising poverty rates.

“If you’re a small district, repealing the current formula ends low-enrollment weighting, which was a guarantee that you could adequately fund your schools,” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, of Topeka. “If you’re a school district that has high numbers of at-risk and bilingual students, you won’t be able to keep up with the rising numbers of these students and the increasing costs associated with them.”

The House panel made several changes to the original bill. Among them was an amendment by Rep. Amanda Grosserode, R-Lenexa, that would provide more funding for virtual schools like the one operated by the Lawrence school district by reimbursing them for the cost of providing online education to adults who are still trying to complete requirements for a high school diploma.

Another change affecting Lawrence guarantees that so-called “new facilities weighting” — additional money the state provides for the first two years of operating a new school facility — will continue through the end of fiscal year 2017. Lawrence has several new facilities that will come on line over that time that are being funded with the $92.5 million bond issue voters approved in April 2013.

GOP leaders were not sure Tuesday whether the bill can get the 63 votes needed to pass on the floor of the House, especially after a vote earlier this month when 67 House members overrode the leadership on a bill designed to restrict the bargaining power of teachers unions.

House Majority Leader Rep. Jene Vickrey, R-Louisburg, said school finance is a different issue and he doesn’t think that 67-vote bloc will hold together. But he conceded that it could be a close vote.

“We’re working on it,” Vickrey said.

But Rep. Louis Ruiz, D-Kansas City, the assistant minority leader, said the bill faces an uphill battle.

“Most of the people I’ve talked with, their school districts don’t like it,” Ruiz said. “Superintendents, some of them may speak for it, but as far as school boards and school district people, they’re not too happy with it.”

House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, has not yet said when he plans to put the bill on the calendar for debate.