The Kansas House has given first approval to a bill that will help pay for students at Fort Leavenworth to be bused to a nearby school district. The Fort Leavenworth School District serves the children of soldiers stationed at the facility, but the district has no high school. Students have been attending high school at a nearby school district. Representative Jim Ward, of Wichita, is the top Democrat on the House Education Committee. He says federal funds had been paying for the cost of busing the students.
The House bill would allow the state to help pay for some of the costs of transporting the Fort Leavenworth students. A similar provision has already passed the House as part of another bill, but that legislation is now mired in a conference committee and may not ultimately pass.