The hope of 4-year-old kindergarten in Madison schools stayed alive Thursday as Assembly Democrats pushed through a $500,000 start-up grant for the district as part of the state budget bill, which they will continue to debate Friday.

But even with that money, the challenges to offering the program remain great as the district could face an $8 million cut in its state aid, or 13 percent, under one new estimate of the effect of state budget cuts on Madison schools.

And Republicans criticized the grant money to the district as an earmark that comes at a time when schools statewide are having their funding cut.

"Any funding that can help mitigate the (4-year-old kindergarten) costs in the first two years is very helpful," said Madison Schools Superintendent Dan Nerad. "We’re very pleased with the proposal that’s been advanced."

Legislators in the Assembly decided Thursday evening to take up the $62.2 billion state budget bill again today. The bill proposes cuts in state school aid and tighter caps on school property tax increases. Democratic Assembly leaders said Thursday they have the votes to pass the bill.

In action since Wednesday, Assembly Democrats made several amendments affecting Madison businesses and taxpayers. Those amendments would:

• Allow a proposed Dane County Regional Transit Authority to use money from a possible 0.5 percent increase in the local sales tax to be used for roads as well as for public transportation.

• Remove provisions that would have made it easier for victims in negligence lawsuits to win full damages from defendants who are found to be only partially at fault for an accident.

• Leave in place a rule requiring state agencies to post legal notices of meetings and other events in the official state newspaper, the Wisconsin State Journal.

Nerad said uncertainty hangs over districts like his, which have already passed the date laid out in union contracts by which they must notify teachers of impending layoffs. That means that, without the consent of the teachers union, Madison schools might have no practical way to lay off teachers or impose furloughs to make up for state aid cuts and property tax caps, Nerad said.

The Madison schools are one of the last large districts in the state not to offer 4-year-old kindergarten, Nerad said. He called the program critical to boosting the achievement of the district’s poor students — a group that now makes up 50 percent of the district’s children, up from 31 percent a decade ago.

Nerad said that, even if there is enough money, offering the program would take at least until the 2010-11 school year and will still depend on resolving thorny questions such as whether to offer the programs in Madison school buildings or local preschools. Spokesman Ken Syke said the district still doesn’t have an estimate on costs to offer the program since it’s still being designed.

Rep. Robin Vos, R-Caledonia, criticized offering the $500,000 4-year-old kindergarten grant to Madison schools at a time when the budget committee cut the $3 million grant program for other state schools because of the state’s financial crunch.

"It’s really unfair for everyone else in Wisconsin," Vos said.