Fort Hays State will be home to the new Kansas Academy of Mathematics and Science, the Kansas Board of Regents decided Wednesday.

But the academy will only open if the Kansas Legislature appropriates funds.

“Now the ball is in the legislators’ court to fund the proposal,” Fort Hays President Edward Hammond said. “Kansas is already kind of late coming to this.”

Missouri and Oklahoma – and more than a dozen other states – have math and science academies.

In Kansas, the academy would bring 40 of the brightest public school students from across the state to Fort Hays for the last two years of their high school education. Another 10 slots would be reserved for private, home-schooled and international students. They would earn high school diplomas and an associate’s degree focusing on math and science.

The academy will go beyond science and math education.

“For instance, our program has a class that is on the seven revolutions, based on the evolution of man,” Hammond said. “There will also be a strong emphasis on developing writing skills across the curriculum.”

The program, which Hammond hopes will start in fall 2009, will cost about $2 million a year when operating at full capacity.

Hammond said the Legislature would provide less than half that. The balance would be covered by private donors and state funds normally funneled to the student’s home district.

Regents chairwoman Christine Downey-Schmidt said this program was crucial if Kansas wants to retain academically talented students. “It is vitally important to our state’s future that our best and brightest students be nurtured in an environment that will encourage them to either stay in Kansas or return to Kansas upon completion of their studies,” she said.

Kansas State, Emporia State and Butler County Community College also applied to host the program.