After an hourslong meeting on Tuesday, a divided state bar committee failed to agree on whether to continue immediate work on a pathway for law school students to become lawyers without passing the bar exam.

Members of the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of the California Bar Exam will now return next month to see if they can find middle ground on an issue that has generally split commissioners between two camps.

Some on the commission say work on a nonexam licensure path should stop until the state Supreme Court considers or approves an overhaul of the controversial test's content. Other commissioners argue nonexam licensing should be equally prioritized and that stalling its consideration could delay any potential changes for years.