Topeka ? House members passed an appropriations bill Friday that includes a provision allowing illegal immigrants who meet certain qualifications to receive a one-year break on tuition at Kansas’ public colleges and universities.

The House approved the budget cleanup bill on a 68-56 vote. It now will go to a conference committee, where House and Senate negotiators will decide whether to include a tuition provision in the compromise version.

The Senate approved its own budget cleanup bill Thursday on a 22-15 vote; it did not include an immigrant-tuition provision.

The House measure would grant in-state tuition to illegal immigrants who had attended a Kansas high school at least three years and graduated or earned a general educational development degree in Kansas. Also, immigrants must be seeking legal immigration status or must plan to do so as soon as they are eligible.

It would apply only during the fiscal year that starts July 1 unless legislators renew it in the future.

In-state tuition can be substantially lower than the rates charged to nonresidents. At Kansas State University, for example, undergraduates from Kansas taking 15 credit hours paid $1,755 in tuition for the current semester, compared to $5,700 for undergraduates from other states.

Supporters said granting the tuition break will help immigrants improve their lives and get better jobs.

“There are more and more of these students,” Rep. Sue Storm, D-Overland Park, said in an interview. “They’ve gone to schools here a long time. They consider themselves Americans. They’re going to be part of the economic picture of the state.”

Opponents contend the state should not help people who are in the United States illegally.

“We should not reward them or anybody else who is breaking the law,” House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, said in an interview. “Why are we giving them the rights, benefits and privileges of citizenship without them actually achieving that status?”

The House approved an immigrant tuition bill last year, and senators rewrote it before approving it this year.

But Mays has used his power as speaker to block further House consideration, leading proponents to attach its substance to the budget cleanup bill.

Immigrant tuition is HB 2008. House’s budget cleanup bill is House Sub for SB 536. Senate’s budget bill is Senate Sub for HB 2471.