BOISE - State senators voted 18-17 against the $1.3 billion public schools budget Wednesday, extending the session beyond Friday after an insurrection of lawmakers who concluded the proposed spending plan for fiscal year 2014 infringed too severely on state education policy.

Sen. John Goedde, of Coeur d'Alene, the Senate Education Committee chairman, argued the budget hadn't been properly vetted by his panel's members, many of whom worried the proposal included too much money for teacher pay - and not enough for helping school districts keep their lights on and buildings heated.

"We're pouring money into a broken system," Goedde said before the vote. "We have a responsibility to make a proper vote, not a hasty vote, and I urge you to send the budget back to the joint committee for further work."

This dustup underscores the long simmering divide between some chairmen of the committee whose job it is to vet policy bills, and the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee that puts together the spending plans for the state.

Goedde is among those who believe Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert and co-chairman of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, has overstepped the appropriate borders.

Losing Wednesday's vote was a gut-punch to Cameron, who unsuccessfully defended the measure as "as good a budget as we've seen in a long time" while attempting to assuage concerns among lawmakers that his panel had overstepped its appropriate role.

He insisted that lawmakers from Goedde's committee, as well as House Education Committee Chairman Reed DeMordaunt, R-Eagle, had adequate opportunity to weigh in. Last week, DeMordaunt said he was "certainly comfortable" with the budget.

"I'm proud to stand here with this budget," Cameron said, pointing out that the Idaho Education Association teachers union and Idaho School Boards Association both backed it. "It's a budget that has the support of all the stakeholders. We have not had a budget like that in the past."

The education budget, the state's biggest single spending plan, had been considered the last major hurdle to ending the 2013 session on Friday. Cameron predicted that deadline can now be thrown away and the rejection could add 10 days to the session.

Others were a little more optimistic.

While this Friday "isn't going to happen," Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill said he's optimistic that an agreement can be reached by midweek, next week. Hill, R-Rexburg, anticipates public hearings on the disputed issues, possibly as soon as this week.

The rejected education budget had cleared the budget committee on a 15-5 vote. It passed the House 52-16 last week. But several provisions in the spending plan proved to be its downfall among members of the more-critical Senate.

For one, teachers were due about $12 million as part of a move to "unfreeze" Idaho's "steps and lanes" teacher salary grid that provides state funding according to their years of service and education level, but which had been suspended during recession-plagued 2010 and 2011 to save money. The budget also included up to $21 million for districts to use as a reward for educators who improve student achievement and sought to direct $3 million for so-called technology pilot projects.

Goedde contended the money for unfreezing the grid should have gone to teacher professional development instead to prepare for new multistate standards for math and language arts that are coming in 2014.

"There's a better way to spend that 12 million," he said.

Sen. Jim Patrick, R-Twin Falls and another Senate Education Committee member, objected to the $21 million directed toward teacher merit pay, saying the money came without proper legislative consideration for how it would be awarded to individual educators.

"If we're going to do any kind of pay for performance, we should do it right," Patrick said.