Will N.H. join rest of nation?

The New Hampshire Legislature is considering a bill that would mandate publicly funded kindergarten by fall of next year in a move that would erase the state's notoriety as the only one in which not all children have access to public kindergarten.

While only 15 school districts statewide are without public kindergarten, 20 percent of the state's 5-year-olds live in those districts, nearly all of which are in the heavily suburbanized southern tier. Rapid enrollment growth in those districts has spawned numerous school construction projects that have many homeowners feeling so overtaxed that they balk at adding new programs, such as public kindergarten. Among those districts are Derry, Hudson, Milford, Pelham, Salem, and Windham.

The lack of public kindergarten in those districts forces parents to send their children to private kindergartens that charge tuition, but some parents do not have the money to pay for the schooling, putting their children at a disadvantage when they arrive in first grade.

The bill would provide districts with up to 75 percent reimbursement for classroom construction and would cover some start-up costs, such as stocking classrooms with books and other learning materials. Those financial perks have been available to districts since the state began its push eight years ago for districts to add public kindergarten, which is typically a half-day program.

''There is no excuse not to have kindergarten," said Peter Allen, a Democrat from Harrisville who is the primary sponsor of the bill and whose town has long had public kindergarten. ''It's about time we got our act together."

That New Hampshire is the last state to hold out in offering public kindergarten to all children is an embarrassment to many school leaders and state policy makers. The last state to mandate public kindergarten was Oregon -- nearly 17 years ago. Now that state's superintendent of schools is pushing to mandate full-day kindergarten instead of the traditional half-day program to better prepare students for more rigorous state and federal testing standards.

In New Hampshire, where local control is coveted and an antitax sentiment runs deep, the state Board of Education came close to mandating public kindergarten last year, but then decided it was a policy issue that should be decided by the Legislature, which has been reluctant to mandate public kindergarten. So far, no high-ranking legislative leader has signed on as a sponsor of the bill, which was introduced in the Legislature this month and had its first hearing before the House Education Committee last week.

Representative Stephen L'Heureux, a Republican from Hooksett who chairs the Education Committee, said this is the third time in six years that the Legislature has considered mandating public kindergarten and predicted that support for the bill on his 22-member committee is evenly divided. He said that, unlike in years past, members do not dispute the benefits of public kindergarten, but many don't like forcing communities to spend money.

''I believe there will be a strong movement in the committee not to adopt legislation based on the financial impact," L'Heureux said.

The bill carries a price tag of $20.9 million in state funding over the next four years for classroom construction and grants to subsidize the cost of running kindergarten programs in the initial years.

But some legislators warn that the costs are much higher, noting that the state, which is struggling to fund education, will have to calculate the new kindergarten students into a formula that distributes state aid to local districts. Opponents also say it is unfair to force local districts to adopt public kindergarten, noting that taxpayers will forever be responsible for funding the program.

Governor John Lynch, a Democrat who has made education a cornerstone of his administration, is still reviewing the legislation, said his spokeswoman, Pamela Walsh, but she noted that the governor is supportive of public kindergarten, having signed legislation last year that extended the life of the state's grant program for classroom construction and start-up costs by another year.

In the southern New Hampshire school districts without public kindergarten, some advocates pushing for the program were unsure whether a state mandate was the right solution and worried that forcing districts to start it by fall of next year did not give districts enough time to prepare.

''Part of me wants to say in all likelihood there's no other way all communities will pony up unless the state forces them to, but another part of me says, 'Gee, do we want to start down this path of mandating what we want to teach, how we want to teach, and when we want to teach,' " said Laurel Redden, cochairwoman of a public kindergarten study committee in Salem.

And Redden said mandating public kindergarten is not as simple as it sounds. Developing a plan to add classrooms is complicated, she said. Salem needs 12 to 14 classrooms for an anticipated 350 kindergartners, and not all of the town's elementary schools have enough land for expansion, leaving the committee to ponder whether only some schools should house kindergarten or whether a school should be built for only kindergarten students. That could lead the district on an exhaustive hunt for land in a town that has little land left for development.

Even in Windham, where a grass-roots group of parents pushing for public kindergarten disbanded last fall because members believed their cause was being overlooked as the town builds its first high school, the former leader of that group said she was leery about a mandate.

''I think it's ludicrous we don't have public kindergarten and we should have it here," said Heather Petro. ''But when you put forward a proposal like kindergarten and it succeeds [at the polls], it gives people in town a sense of pride and ownership."

A mandate, on the other hand, could breed resentment.

Allen said the fall 2007 start of mandated public kindergarten could be pushed back as the Legislature debates the bill.

Meanwhile, four of the 15 districts without public kindergarten are taking decisive steps to bring the program to their schools. Goffstown and Hampstead are creating classrooms that should be ready by this fall, and Litchfield and Lyndeborough have filed applications for construction aid with the state Department of Education.

In Merrimack, which started public kindergarten this year, Mastricola Elementary School principal Kathleen Custer said she wishes the state had mandated public kindergarten a long time ago. ''It's been a labor of love" getting kindergarten started in the state, she said. ''To think it might be mandated in New Hampshire at long last would be a wonderful thing.

''People come here in disbelief that we don't have kindergarten. Our kindergarten students are coming to school eager to learn. They're gobbling up instruction in math and early literacy."