AUSTIN -- Members of the Texas House officially registered their disgust with a school choice program that would funnel state funds to private schools Thursday by voting to ban the practice in the state's next two-year budget.

Lawmakers in the midst of what promises to be an hours-long slog debating the state's spending plan for the next biennium voted 103-44 in favor of an amendment expressly stating state money "may not be used to pay for or support a school voucher, education savings account, or tax credit scholarship program or a similar program through which a child may use state money for nonpublic education."

The House then rejected a follow-up pitch to allow children from poor families to use such a program. The chamber voted that idea down 117-27.

"Good-bye SB3," Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, said from his desk after the vote, referring to Senate Bill 3 which passed the Senate last month 18-13.

Rep. Abel Herrero, a Robstown Democrat who sponsored the amendment, said the vote shows the House is steadfast against a voucher program, whether it applies to all students or a smaller swath of kids.

"The vote today sends a resounding message that schemes like vouchers, tax credits, savings programs, call it what you may, at the end of the day, it's a method in which it seeks to siphon away moneys from our public schools," said Herrero. "The House, with the vote today, strongly took a position in support of our public schools, our public school teachers."

The votes put on the record the lower chamber's distaste for a program prioritized by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and favored by Gov. Greg Abbott to allow students to take public funds assigned to their school district to subsidize tuition at private schools. The Senate has spent years trying to push such a program into law but the bill has failed to make traction in the House.