Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna tried a substitute motion after Ysursa's, to transfer $42.3 million to schools, but that, like his first $52.8 million motion, died for lack of a second. Attorney General Lawrence Wasden then offered a substitute motion to defer any action and direct the Endowment Fund Investment Board and Department of Lands to provide a written analysis of the effects of such a distribution on the board's current investment strategy. State Controller Donna Jones seconded the motion.

"Each one of us is committed to do everything legally possible to minimize the impact (of budget cuts) ... on our schoolchildren," Wasden said in a statement. Board members, he said, must determine if the action is consistent with their legal duties. "We must answer the legal question, is this course of action prudent? If the answer is yes, we may proceed," Wasden said, and if not, they can't. Asked how long such an analysis would take, Larry Johnson, investment manager for the endowment fund, said, "We would probably be talking about a matter of months rather than a matter of days or weeks" to do the type of analysis outlined by Attorney General Wasden.

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