North Dakota House advocates for all-day kindergarten were successful in keeping $2 million in aid for schools that want to offer it.

The money is included in the Department of Public Instruction's budget bill. The state now provides aid only for half-days of kindergarten.

"Research has proven that (full-day kindergarten) does help kids get a good start, and to get them ready for first grade," said Rep. RaeAnn Kelsch, R-Mandan. "We need to start competing with the rest of the nation, and we need to start competing globally."

Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo, said the push for all-day kindergarten gives youngsters less time to be children.

"If the parents want them in kindergarten, they can be there," Kasper said. "But by passing the bill as it is … we're going to have all-day kindergarten all over the state of North Dakota, and those kids won't have a chance to be kids like they should be."

The debate came Friday as the House approved the Department of Public Instruction's two-year, $1.05 billion spending bill. It includes $726.2 million in state aid to schools, along with the budgets for the state schools for the deaf and blind and the North Dakota State Library.

The Commission on Education Improvement, a panel appointed by Gov. John Hoeven to study how North Dakota allocates state aid to schools, recommended setting aside money for all-day kindergarten for children considered to be "at risk." The commission's report did not advocate state financing for all-day kindergarten in each school district.

Rep. Blair Thoreson, R-Fargo, said a study published last year questioned the long-term benefit to students of all-day kindergarten.

During the 2005 Legislature, the House voted down state aid for all-day kindergarten on five separate occasions, said Rep. Dave Weiler, R-Bismarck.

"It must be a record. It's gotta be. Five times we said no," Weiler said. "It kept coming back and kept coming back."

The House floor fight on Friday came after seven Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee challenged the $2 million kindergarten expenditure, using a tactic called a minority report.

Fifteen committee members - seven Republicans and eight Democrats - signed a majority report supporting the kindergarten money. Their argument prevailed.

One of the Democratic supporters of the majority report, Blanchard Rep. Ole Aarsvold, said there was "no question that early childhood participation in a kindergarten program, a full-day program, is beneficial."

"If you don't believe that, then you have to reject all we've ever known and learned about education," Aarsvold said.

The bill is SB2013.