Topeka ? A special legislative committee charged with studying ways to finance public schools in Kansas held its first meeting Friday, but it did not even begin discussion of a new funding formula.

Instead, the Special Committee on K-12 Student Success sifted through a mountain of data about how schools are currently spending their funds and how they account for the difference between “classroom” and “non-classroom” expenditures.

Rep. Ron Highland, R-Wamego, who chairs the joint committee, called it a productive hearing.

“We know now all the different subsections of where all the money is going, that most of us weren’t aware of. So now we have those details,” said Highland, who also chairs the regular House Education Committee. “And we also know that they’re following a federal recommendation or guideline as to what funds they put in and call ‘classroom’ or ‘instructional’ spending.”

Deputy Education Commissioner Dale Dennis briefs a legislative panel on details of how schools account for money spent on instruction, and money that goes for other purposes.

The special committee is charged with laying the groundwork for writing a new school finance formula to replace the old formula lawmakers repealed during the 2015 session.

That formula, adopted in 1992, sent state money to schools based on the number of students in the districts and the number of students with special needs, such as those from low-income households or non-English speaking families.

But Republican lawmakers in particular grew increasingly frustrated with that formula because of its complexity and because it frequently resulted in the state owing more money to school districts than lawmakers had appropriated the previous year.

They also grew frustrated because the key element of the formula, known as “base state aid per pupil,” has been the target of costly litigation. A group of school districts known as Schools For Fair Funding have sued the state twice, arguing the base funding amount has been insufficient to cover the actual cost of providing a suitable education.

Those plaintiffs won a huge victory in 2005, in the case Montoy vs. Kansas, which resulted in a Supreme Court order for the Legislature to add more than $300 million a year in base funding.

Those plaintiffs also won a favorable verdict from a district court earlier this year in the latest lawsuit, Gannon vs. Kansas. An appeal of that decision is now pending before the Supreme Court.

In an effort to fend off further litigation, lawmakers this year repealed the formula and replaced it with a system of “block grants” that effectively freezes state spending at 2014 levels for the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school years.

But many districts, including Lawrence, saw significant funding cuts under the block grant system because lawmakers also changed the method of distributing so-called “equalization aid” that subsidizes certain parts of the budgets for districts with less property wealth than others.

Critics of the block grant system also argue it does not take into account changes in student enrollment. As a result, districts like Lawrence that had significant growth in the past year are receiving substantially less money per-pupil than before, while districts with declining enrollment are getting more funding per-pupil.

Highland said GOP leaders in the Legislature hope to be able to pass a new funding formula in the 2016 session. But Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley, of Topeka, who was in the Legislature when the last formula was adopted in 1992, said he thinks that’s unlikely.

“The experience we had in 1992 was that it took us a couple of interims, an entire legislative session and then some to be able to put together a school finance formula,” he said. “I’m not sure we’ve got the time or the political will to put together a new school finance formula.”