House Republicans approved state-funded private-school vouchers for low-income students on Monday and tied them to the future of all-day kindergarten funding.

They did so despite the threat of a sure veto from Gov. Janet Napolitano.

The measure, which passed 31-27, is designed to give Napolitano what she wanted most from the budget: $17 million to further expand all-day kindergarten. But the governor would have to accept school-choice measures popular with conservatives. Senate Republican leaders have waited for more than a week to act on the budget as House leaders worked to build support for vouchers. Senate leaders will now try to follow suit.

Before the vote, Napolitano again told Republican leaders that she would not accept a budget that includes vouchers and that doesn't include $7 million for a new downtown Phoenix medical school, which is still missing from the plan. As she left the House, Napolitano curtly said, "They aren't ready to negotiate yet."

House Bill 2782 includes the all-day kindergarten funding and a voucher plan that would start small in 2006 with $3,500 yearly vouchers for 1,500 low-income kindergarten children. It would eventually grow to $70 million a year. The bill also includes a new corporate tax credit for private- and parochial-school scholarships that would eventually cost $55 million a year.

"This is not going to be the sky falling," said Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert. "It's going to be limited, it's going to be effective, and I'm guessing it's going to be very successful as have charter schools and tuition tax credits."

Fears that vouchers would hurt public education by draining its resources are "the same tired arguments" that were used when lawmakers approved charter schools 10 years ago and the individual tuition tax credits in the late 1990s, Farnsworth said. He led a holdout on the budget with other conservatives until school-choice measures were included.

Democratic opponents, such as Rep. Pete Rios of Hayden, said rural children would benefit the least from vouchers because there are few private schools for them to attend. Those schools can pick and choose their students and may not want poor and minority children from small towns even if they can find transportation.

"For me to say to my constituents that I supported vouchers because you will have an opportunity to send your children to private and parochial schools, you will have a choice, they will say, 'Yeah right, what choice?' " Rios said. "Where are these schools? They are not in rural Arizona."

Republican opponents, such as Jonathan Paton of Tucson, said public money would ruin private schools.

"We are in the process of turning what was a pristine private education into the very thing that proponents decry in public schools: a big government system out for more government money," Paton said. "Government money corrupts everything."

The House Republicans did not approve the remainder of its budget plan, which has been under construction since Napolitano vetoed legislators' first effort more than a month ago.

House Majority Leader Steve Tully said it's Napolitano who is unwilling to budge, noting that Republican leaders have added in much of the spending Napolitano has demanded for the $8.2 billion plan. But they have concerns about the medical school's costs, and they want more choices for underprivileged children in exchange for all-day kindergarten funding.

"Is she just going to keep vetoing the budget until we give her exactly what she wants?" said Tully, R-Phoenix. "Who's guilty of being an obstructionist at this point?"

Playing a high-stakes game of chicken with Napolitano won't work, said Senate Minority Leader Linda Aguirre, D-Phoenix, who was in Napolitano's meeting with Republicans.

"They think they can send her a budget on June 30 (the end of the fiscal year), and they don't think she will veto it," Aguirre said. "Yes she will, and it will only increase her support. She gave her bottom-line concerns, and she justified them. She was firm, and she didn't mince words."