The governor’s budget proposal could force some school districts and charter schools to charge tuition in order to keep offering the popular full-day option to kindergartners, many said Tuesday. Other school districts say they would find a way to fund the program.

The state is facing a $3 billion shortfall in funding for fiscal year 2011, which begins in July. Full-day kindergarten is one of several programs the governor has proposed cutting.

Last spring, lawmakers proposed cutting the full-day funding but didn’t follow through, instead cutting other areas of education.

The state has only funded full-day programs for a handful of years. But the benefits are clear, educators say.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said he’s seen the outcome of the program, especially in the poorer neighborhoods he visits.

“The teachers tell me a substantial number of their students are reading, and they were not able to do that in the half-day program,” Horne said. “For students in poor neighborhoods to be reading is a huge step forward to eliminate the fact that when kids are behind when they start, they never catch up.”

If the state does cut the program, some school districts say they will find a way to provide it themselves.

“The demand is so great that we will continue to provide the program and absorb any potential cuts,” said Terry Locke, spokesman for the Chandler Unified School District.

Mesa Unified School District Superintendent Mike Cowan said his district may have to look at federal dollars — such as those for Title I schools with higher low-income levels — to help support full-day kindergarten.

“Mesa schools would do what we can to support parents’ requests for full-day kindergarten,” he said.

Kindergarten registration starts in the Mesa Unified and Gilbert Unified school districts next week. Chandler school district starts registration Feb. 16.

Some charter school leaders, too, are very worried about the impact on their programs. Like the school districts, charters are public schools that receive state funding to operate full-day kindergarten.

Lynn Robershotte, superintendent of Edu-Prize Schools in Gilbert and Pinal County, is disappointed in Brewer’s announcement and especially concerned about the division of opportunities it could create. The Gilbert Edu-Prize location has 160 kindergartners. The Pinal County location has more than 300.

“In Pinal County … we have children of extreme need and very much socially and economically challenged. This is a critical issue for those children to be in school full day,” she said. “I think in our Gilbert location our parents might be able to pay a tuition, but that to me is unconstitutional. So those children who have parents who have the wherewithal will have a full education and those who don’t get a partial education. I think this is devastating.”

Parents are concerned because of the positive impact the full-day program has had on children.

Misty Lewis, assistant director of Primrose School of East Mesa, which offers programs for infants through kindergarten, has four older children in the Gilbert school district’s Canyon Rim Elementary School.

“There’s so much that’s expected of the children once they hit first grade on up, especially at third grade,” Lewis said. “Without that full-day kindergarten, I don’t think they would be ready to meet all the demands on them.”

Three of her children went through full-day kindergarten programs. One son was in a half-day program when the family lived in Show Low. Now in third grade, he struggles and requires additional work with a tutor to keep up, she said.

Her youngest is in kindergarten now. When the proposal was made last spring to cut the full-day program, she said she was “at a loss.” She was not employed at Primrose at the time, which offers full-day kindergarten.

“I did not know what I was going to do,” she said. “My husband and I were both full-time students and full-time employees.”

Parents who put their children in the full-day prekindergarten program at Primrose or other preschools may hesitate to then accept a public school’s half-day kindergarten, she said.

But that option is still offered in school districts and charter schools.

The four Benjamin Franklin Charter Schools — in Mesa, Gilbert and Queen Creek — only offer half-day kindergarten programs.

“We have quite a full program of kindergartners,” said Eddie Farnsworth, executive director of the Franklin charters.

Farnsworth, a former Republican legislator from Gilbert, added: “I think there are a lot of people out there that believe kids don’t need to be in school all day when they’re 5 years old. They want to have them at home as much as possible and still have an introduction into the program we have.”

In that program, which meets two and a half hours a day, the children learn spelling and how to read, he said. “The reality is we’ve always been full at kindergarten,” Farnsworth said. “When the full-day kindergarten came out, we saw an increase in the demand for the half-day program.”

 Kindergarten enrollment

Chandler Unified School District

• Full day — 3,090

• Half day — 41

Higley Unified School District

• Full day — 782

• Half day — 49

Gilbert Unified School District

• Full day — 2,400

• Half day — 200

Mesa Unified School District

• Full day — 4,828

• Half day — 244

Queen Creek Unified School District

• Full day — 435

• Half day — 20