JACKSON — The Mississippi Senate on Friday reversed itself on a bill to restore $45 million to the K-12 public education budget, instead approving a measure that would give back $28 million to schools struggling with operations after a series of budget cuts.

The new plan calls for taking $58 million from the health care trust fund and spreading the money across numerous programs and agencies, including education.

The Senate reconsidered the vote on a bill that would have taken $50 million from the state health care trust fund and steered $45 million to schools. Gov. Haley Barbour could have used the $5 million to restore a fraction of the cuts he has made to other programs.

But Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Alan Nunnelee said the proposal did too little to help other agencies.

“Everybody in the chamber supports schools, but you cannot overlook the necessities,” said Nunnelee, R-Tupelo.

Nunnelee proposed the alternative that would go toward K-12, community colleges, the Mississippi Department of Corrections and the state”s district attorneys and staff, among other programs.

The final version of the bill overwhelmingly passed the Senate after Sen. Hob Bryan proposed an amendment to give public education $12 million of the $16 million Nunnelee originally allocated for the corrections department. The move boosted funding for public schools to more than $28 million.

“We”re trying to pass legislation that we might agree on and get passed,” said Bryan, D-Amory.

The bill now moves to the House, where legislators have voted to take $50 million from the health care trust fund and $50 million from the rainy day fund to restore one-fourth of the budget cuts made by Barbour this fiscal year, which started July 1.

Barbour has shaved $437 million from what began as a nearly $6 billion spending plan for Mississippi as the state”s revenue collections continue to fall far below expectations. Funding for the state”s schools has been reduced by $195 million.

The governor had scheduled a news conference Friday to announce a fourth round of budget cuts.

Sen. Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, said he supported restoring money to public education because he has heard from school officials in the districts he represents from Warren, Yazoo and Issaquena counties. Hopson, who has three children in public schools, said the districts are in a unique situation.

“They can”t just cut programs, teachers and bus routes in the middle of the year,” Hopson said. “The other agencies can make adjustments on the fly.”

House Education Committee Chairman Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, who”s also a key member of that chamber”s Appropriations Committee, said the Senate bill doesn”t go far enough.

“We think we need more money,” Brown said Friday. “They seem to agree there”s a problem for 2010, and we look forward to getting the bill into conference so we can work it out.”

The bill is Senate Bill 2688.

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.