Topeka ? A proposal by state Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, to create a commission that would make recommendations to the Legislature on what the state should fund in public schools may have been killed by Gov. Sam Brownback and House Speaker Mike O’Neal.

Sloan is chair of the House Vision 2020 Committee, which earlier this week filed a bill that would set up the “constitutional education suitability commission” and present findings to the Legislature by Dec. 1, 2012.

The commission would have 19 members including teachers, administrators, parents of public school students, representatives from higher education, employers and others. It’s task would be to make recommendations on curriculum components that should be funded by the Legislature.

The fight over school finance, which takes up about half of the state budget, has been one of the toughest over the past several legislative sessions.

Sloan said he figured it would be a good idea to get experts, stakeholders and businesses together to try to determine what should the state fund.

“The fight between education supporters and more conservative members of the Legislature can’t be addressed unless we get to a common point of what we need to fund,” Sloan said.

Sloan said he believes members of the commission would be better suited than legislators to come up with a definition of what a suitable education should include.

But Brownback, a Republican, on Wednesday assigned legislative leaders to tackle school finance, Medicaid and the state’s public pension system, and deliver reforms by the end of the current legislative session.

Brownback gave Speaker O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, the lead on school funding.

“I’m not big on creating a commission to come back in two years,” O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, said when asked about Sloan’s proposal.

He said Sloan was correct in focusing on determining what a suitable education is, and that there may be parts of the bill that could be used as a framework for discussion. But O’Neal added, “I have a shorter timeframe.”