Despite the expense, Howard County should not wait to begin all-day kindergarten until state law requires it in 2007, says a newly elected state delegate who is introducing his first bill in hopes of speedier action.

A public hearing on the bill, with several other local measures, is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. tomorrow in the George Howard Building in Ellicott City.

Del.-elect Neil Quinter, a District 13 Democrat, has not been sworn into office, but he is pushing the county's school system to produce a plan to start all-day kindergarten in 2004 for schools at which 20 percent or more of children enrolled are poor.

All of Howard's elementary schools would have the program by the 2006-2007 school year, a year before the state requires, if Quinter succeeds. The bill is being introduced as a courtesy by Del. John A. Giannetti Jr. Quinter will not be sworn in until next month.

"I am trying to give [the school board] a gentle nudge toward doing it. I'm trying to focus their attention on it," Quinter said.

All-day kindergarten is part of the Thornton Commission educational reform package approved by the Maryland General Assembly last year. Under the law, Quinter pointed out, Howard is due $624,000 for kindergartens the first year. But the $1.3 billion reform program is not funded after the first two years.

Last year, Sydney L. Cousin, Howard County schools' deputy superintendent, told the County Council that a minimum of 59 new classrooms, 86 more teachers and 46 aides would be needed. The school system estimated a start-up cost of $30.5 million. With local governments across Maryland waiting to learn how Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. will deal with a projected two-year, $1.7 billion budget shortfall, the prospects for producing millions of dollars earlier than required by law are murky.

"We have to look at classroom space. What are we going to do?" asked Jane B. Schuchardt, the departing school board chairman.

But Quinter is not discouraged.

"I think this is a priority. We're going to have 10,000 kindergartners go through Howard County schools before 2007. It's appropriate to get this help to them as soon as we can," he said.

State education officials said Howard is one of four Maryland counties without all-day kindergarten in schools. The others are Harford, Cecil and Kent.

Howard has small, grant-funded, extended-day kindergarten programs at eight county schools, with the highest proportion of children from poor families, said Tracy Jones, a county instruction specialist for early grades.

The program allows an extra half-day of instruction for groups of up to 10 children, who are identified by kindergarten teachers as needing help with the alphabet or other early learning skills.

"For now, I think we're offering a really terrific opportunity for those children. I think it's wonderful," Jones said, because the small groups allow more individual attention for each child.

School officials say they are doing what Quinter wants - studying how to begin an all-day program, including the number of teachers and classrooms needed and the costs.

"I told Neil that the school system is already looking into that," board member Virginia Charles said, although the full board has not discussed it.

"We haven't seen the bill. We're trying to provide him with information," Superintendent John R. O'Rourke said.

Implementing such a program early, however, "would be extremely difficult," he said. Study results are scheduled to be ready in March.

Other bills up for consideration include requests for capital budget money denied last year for circuit courthouse renovations and restoration of the manor house on the Blandair Farm in Columbia, which is to become a county park.