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As with many major issues in the 2007 legislative session, K-12 education plans took on many forms before scaled-back plans were signed by the governor.

The original Senate bill would funnel $444 million into preschool through college education, including an early childhood subsidy for families to pay for the program of their choice.

The tax proposal would raise almost $1 billion by creating a new fourth-tier income tax rate of 9.7 percent. The rate would hit taxable income above $250,000 for joint filers and $141,250 for single filers.

That plan ran into plenty of opposition.

The final plan included $33 million to expand full-day kindergarten, only a fraction of the $320 million it would cost to expand the program statewide. The bill restores funding for three preschool programs that were cut during the 2003 budget crunch - Early Childhood Family Education, Head Start and School Readiness.

The education bill also includes $1 million for an early childhood literacy program, such as the Words Work program run by the Saint Paul Foundation. And the health and human services bill that the governor signed includes $6 million for a pilot program to provide preschool scholarships to low-income children.

The governor supported a modest increase in early childhood funding, but not a broad new program. Pawlenty said the state had other important priorities, and should target preschool funding to the state's neediest children.