Spending $225,000 on aid for prekindergarten is not wise when advocates of existing education programs say they need more money, the North Dakota Senate has decided.

"We're putting together programs … (and) there seems to be a lot of folks agreeing that we're not funding them properly," said Sen. Raymon Holmberg, R-Grand Forks. "So why would we go down the road of not funding kindergarten properly, and then establishing another new program that we are also not funding properly?"

Senators on Monday voted 23-22 for a bill to authorize aid for prekindergarten programs, which can benefit children as young as 4, in school districts that want to offer them. The bill fell one short of the 24 votes needed for approval.

Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, described the measure as a way to allow some school districts to experiment with prekindergarten.

"We are having studies come before us that say that brain development, essentially, is complete by kindergarten," Mathern said. "If it is, in fact, true, that's suggesting at some point we will make greater investments from birth to kindergarten. … However, before we would make that kind of step, we want to practice it. We want to evaluate it."

In North Dakota, children are not required to attend school until age 7, and public school kindergarten programs are voluntary. The state already provides aid for half-days of kindergarten instruction.

The current version of the Department of Public Instruction's budget bill includes $2 million to support all-day kindergarten programs. However, the Legislature's work on the bill is not complete, and its budget details may change.

Holmberg said North Dakota's public schools already have authority to set up prekindergarten programs but the legislation would allow them to use federal Title I education money to do so. Title I money is targeted to students whose circumstances may make it more difficult for them to reach educational standards.

The bill is HB1320.