HARRISBURG — A commission reviewing how Pennsylvania distributes money to public schools narrowly approved a report Thursday that suggests the state is underfunding districts by more than $5 billion and should begin immediately to close that gap.

The vote on the report by the Basic Education Funding Commission was backed by Democrats and members of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro's administration. Republicans and one Democrat on the commission opposed it, resulting in an 8-7 vote.

A key recommendation in the report said the state should immediately begin to close a school funding gap of more than $5 billion, phasing in the increased aid over seven years.

The report differs somewhat from what districts in a landmark court case want from the state. The districts' lawyers proposed a $6.2 billion increase in state aid to be phased in over five years.

A separate Republican report was defeated on party lines during the meeting in a Capitol hearing room.

The report contains only recommendations and does not require Shapiro or Pennsylvania's politically divided Legislature to act. But Democrats hope it at least provides a blueprint for this year’s budget, and for budgets every year after that.

“This is the end of the beginning,” commission co-chair Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster, said at the meeting. “There’s still a whole lot of work to do.”

In a statement, House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, criticized the report as containing a “funding-only approach” to fix inadequacies in Pennsylvania's system of school funding.

The commission was required by law to meet to provide recommendations to lawmakers on how to update a formula that is supposed to guide how roughly $8 billion in state aid is distributed to Pennsylvania's 500 school districts.

However, Republicans and Democrats on the commission disagreed over what, if any, recommendations the commission should provide in response to last year’s court decision that found Pennsylvania’s system of funding public schools violates the constitutional rights of students in poorer districts.

The Democrats' report calculated a dollar target for what each school district should receive to provide a constitutionally adequate and equitable education to students across the poorest and wealthiest school districts.

Current funding falls short by $5.4 billion, the report said, or about 18% of what districts spend. Of that amount, $5.1 billion is the state's responsibility and $291 million is the responsibility of low-tax school districts, the report said.

The report wraps up months and 11 hearings from the commission, which was composed of 12 lawmakers and three members of Shapiro’s administration.