The Alaska House majority on Friday chose to slow down a major school funding boost its members had previously expedited through the Legislature with calls for more closed-door negotiations. House Bill 69 was recently introduced by members of the Democrat-dominated House majority.

Bipartisan House majority members say a big school funding boost is urgently needed, with the state’s education system in crisis.

Minority-caucus Republicans said the funding bill wasn’t worth discussing in committee because the majority hasn’t said how to pay for it.

A voting error led one Alaska House of Representatives minority-caucus member on Wednesday to vote to move a public-school funding increase one step closer to passage through the Alaska House of Representatives,

With one member out battling an illness, the majority could not pass the bill out of the Education Committee along caucus lines. They did so with a floor vote instead.