JACKSON (AP) — Mississippi lawmakers are rejecting an attempt to rewrite the state’s public school funding formula.

The state Senate killed the bill on a procedural motion Thursday. The vote was 27-21.

A number of Republicans broke ranks and voted with Democrats. The bill would have replaced the state’s 21-year-old Mississippi Adequate Education Program with a new formula.

Sen. Hob Bryan, an Amory Democrat who made the motion to kill the bill, argues that the new proposal is based on faulty data and hasn’t been thoroughly considered.

Senate Education Committee Chairman Gray Tollison, an Oxford Republican, tells senators that they should have moved forward, saying the current formula inequitably distributes a significant portion of its money.

The vote climaxes in a multi-year struggle by Republicans to change the formula.