PHOENIX — Incoming Gov. Jan Brewer is balking at eliminating state funding for full-day kindergarten despite the $200 million or more it would save taxpayers.

Brewer, in an interview with Jay Lawrence of KTAR Radio in Phoenix, said she understands the need to look at all the money the state spends, what with a $1.2 billion budget deficit this year and a gap of more than $2 billion next year between anticipated revenues and expenses.

But Brewer, who would need to run for re-election in less than two years, also said she understands Arizona voters are "very, very supportive" of the program, put into the state budget by Gov. Janet Napolitano when the state had a surplus. And that, said Brewer, makes her loath to return to the days when the state funded only half-day programs.

Any move to take kindergarten spending off the table will get a fight from the two lawmakers whose job it will be to plug the budget deficit, the lawmakers indicated.

Incoming Sen. Russell Pearce, a Republican who will chair the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he understands public sentiment as well as Brewer's desire not to ruffle feathers. But he said that is irrelevant.

"It doesn't matter whether the public likes it," he said. "They can't afford it."

Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, who will chair the House Appropriations Committee, said he recognizes that taking away a program the state has funded for years — and has become expected — will draw political opposition. But Kavanagh said it will be his job and that of other legislators to explain to their constituents that there is no way to balance the budget and keep full-day kindergarten.

"You have to let the people know that's there's 'need to have' and 'nice to have,' " he said. Kavanagh said there is little evidence that the expanded programs make a long-term difference in the educational success of most children.

The state historically paid only for half-day kindergarten. But that changed in 2005 in a deal between Napolitano and legislative leaders: They would provide full-day financing in exchange for Napolitano agreeing not to veto a program sought by many Republicans to provide state vouchers for some children to attend private and parochial schools.

Kavanagh pegged the additional cost at $218 million a year.

Since that time, lawmakers also agreed, at Napolitano's behest, to fund construction of the additional classrooms necessary. Pearce said that figure tops $200 million a year.

Brewer said the funding is "probably something we're going to need to take a look at and see what we need to do." But Brewer, who will become governor after Napolitano is confirmed as the new U.S. secretary of homeland security, said she has yet to be convinced that cutting full-day kindergarten makes sense.

"It's not something that I personally, at this point in time, feel that we need to go in and get rid of," she said.

Brewer acknowledged the views of people like Pearce and Kavanagh who say the state needs to scrap full-day financing.

"But I know that, on polling, almost 75 percent of the public, they do support all-day kindergarten," she said.

Pearce said Brewer certainly has the right to take kindergarten funding off the table.

But "tell her to give me a list of where to cut," he said.

Pearce said there's an answer to the issue of the program's popularity. "If they want it, let them vote district by district," he said, with voters deciding if they're willing to hike what they pay in school taxes.

Some school districts did finance full-day programs on their own before the state stepped in. But those districts, including Tucson Unified, said the state financing simply freed up the cash for use on other programs.