Each North Dakota school should have a portable heart defibrillator, despite questions about whether taxpayer money should be used to supply the machines to private schools, the state House has concluded.

"They truly are marvelous medical machines. They have saved lives," said Rep. Phillip Mueller, D-Valley City. "I think it's only right that we would make sure that all of our school buildings … have defibrillators."

Automated external defibrillators, or AEDs for short, administer an electric shock to restart the heart of someone who has suffered cardiac arrest. Supporters of the devices say they can save precious minutes by getting someone's heart restarted before emergency personnel arrive.

Representatives voted 92-0 on Monday to spend up to $400,000 to supply the machines to all public and private school buildings. They cost about $1,200 each. The legislation now returns to the state Senate for additional work.

Some schools already have defibrillators and the program will not provide them with another one, said Rep. Kathy Hawken, R-Fargo.

The purchase of the machines is being financed with state aid normally distributed in per-student payments to schools at the end of the two-year state budgeting period. The money is left over because the 2005 Legislature budgeted for a larger public school enrollment.

Some lawmakers wondered whether using taxpayer funds to buy AEDs for public and private schools alike would run afoul of the constitutional separation of church and state. Those questions were overridden by support for the idea.

"What is the worst that could happen if we went out and provided one of these to every school in North Dakota, not just public schools?" asked Rep. Dave Weiler, R-Bismarck. "If this is an important issue and we need to have these in public schools, I don't understand why we can't put one in private schools."

The bill is SB2313.