The Senate on Wednesday gave initial approval to the annual school finance act, minus a provision that would allow a portion of Amendment 23 education funding increases to continue beyond their expiration date.

Mandated funding of 1 percent above inflation is scheduled to expire in 2011, and then schools would be funded at the annual inflation rate.

When House Democrats extended the 1 percent increases in the annual school funding bill — House Bill 1388 — it dealt a major blow to House Speaker Andrew Romanoff's plan to untangle the state's constitutional knot.

But senators of both parties stripped the increases out this week in committee.