Topeka ? Republican leaders in the Kansas House mustered enough votes Thursday to give preliminary approval to a historic overhaul of the state’s school finance system.

The House advanced the bill by a vote of 64-58, just one vote more than the bare minimum needed to pass legislation. A final vote is expected Friday. All four members of the Lawrence delegation voted against the bill.

“What we are trying to do is create stability within that system so that we have budgetary certainty, our schools have budgetary certainty,” said Rep. Amanda Grosserode, R-Lenexa, who led the debate in favor of the bill. “We also want to increase the flexibility with which schools can apply those funds that we give them.”

The bill, which had been introduced only a week earlier, is largely the result of years of lawsuits over school funding and court orders directing the Legislature to spend more on public education.

“It’s been said the formula has been tested for 23 years. It’s also been litigated for 23 years,” said Rep. Marc Rhoades, R-Newton.

While those lawsuits have gone on, and particularly after the last major decisions in 2005 and 2006, the balance of political power in the Legislature has shifted to fiscally conservative Republicans who prefer lower taxes to increased education spending, and who now control both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s office.

“I commend the anti-education lobby that has done their job today,” said House Democratic Leader Tom Burroughs of Kansas City. “Maybe this isn’t the great state of Kansas. Maybe this is the great state of the Chamber of Commerce.”

The bill was reportedly the subject of intense behind-the-scenes lobbying and arm-twisting and cajoling within the GOP caucus over the last few days.

“If you sell steak in Topeka, the last few days have been very good for you,” said Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, suggesting that many wavering legislators had been taken out to dinner at Topeka restaurants in efforts to secure their votes.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback requested the bill in his State of the State address in January. It abolishes the current per-pupil funding formula that has been in place since 1992 and replaces it, for this year and the next two years, with block grants for each of the state’s 286 school districts.

Those block grants combine several different types of funding into a single fund and give school districts more flexibility in how to spend those funds.

Supporters of the bill said it restores the allotment cuts that Brownback ordered earlier this year and provides about $300 million more funding than schools received last year, although most of that would go for mandatory increases in retirement fund contributions.

But many districts, including Lawrence, would still see less money this year than they were told they would receive when school boards throughout the state set their budgets back in August.

The Lawrence school district would receive about $1.6 million less than it had expected in August.

Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, said the money the state has put into public schools has produced results.

“I will vote no because I believe our education system is good, and it’s not by accident,” Ballard said.

Rep. Boog Highburger said he was disappointed with the bill and the process used to bring it to the floor. He noted that it was unveiled to the public at a news conference before it had been printed. And when the House came into session Thursday, members still didn’t have the final version, with committee amendments, on their desk until moments before the debate began.

Rep. John Wilson, D-Lawrence, and Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, also voted against the bill.

“The bill hurts my district very, very much,” said Rep. Annie Kuether, a Democrat from central Topeka, where the local school district stands to lose a little more than $800,000 under the block grant plan.

The cuts are mainly the result of changes in the way so-called “equalization” aid is calculated. That’s the money the state pays to subsidize capital outlay and local option budgets for less wealthy districts.

Rep. Ron Ryckman, R-Olathe, said the equalization formulas are one of the biggest problems with the current formula because it measures wealth in terms of per-pupil property valuation. As a result, districts where property values are stagnant and enrollments are declining become richer under the formula and thus lose equalization aid.

“The formula produces results we don’t agree with,” Ryckman said.

If the bill becomes law, it will lock in place about $3.4 billion of spending for each of the next two years, or roughly half of the state’s total general fund budget. The next challenge will be to come up with a way to fund those budgets in the face of declining revenues that are the result of massive tax cuts enacted in 2012 and 2013.

“If you vote for this bill,” said Rep. Russ Jennings, R-Lakin, “I certainly expect you will vote in favor of the tax measures that will be needed.”

Both the Houe and Senate budget committees are expected to begin working next week to finalize the rest of the state’s budget for the next two years.

Rep. Marvin Kleeb, R-Overland Park, who chairs the House Taxation Committee, said this week that he plans to open hearings on various tax measures in early May, after an omnibus budget is approved and after new revenue estimates are released.