KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Funding from the foundation established by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates could help boost education reform efforts on both sides of the state line in Kansas City.

Currently, only the two-year-old Achievement First program in Kansas City, Mo., gets money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, but efforts are under way that could include the older First Things First program in Kansas City, Kan.

That program, started eight years ago, was praised by Gates himself earlier this year when he spoke to the National Governors Assn., lamenting the state of high schools across America.

Steve Gering, deputy superintendent of the Kansas City, Kan., district, said the attention from Gates was both gratifying and humbling.

“That created external pressure in a really good way,” he said.

“When someone is talking about your school system in that way, you want to make sure it continues, so you step it up a notch.”

The Gates foundation is exploring ways to work with the two urban school districts, as well as two charter schools on the Missouri side, for funding that district officials say could run into millions of dollars.

“It is an important effort,” said Tom Vander Ark, executive director of education with the Gates foundation.

Jack Jennings, director of the Center on Education Policy, said First Things First and the Kansas City, Kan., district often draw national recognition for student progress. He said the administrators there could use their experience in guiding those from the Kansas City, Mo., district.

“They have shown they can reduce the achievement gap,” Jennings said. “They deserve the additional support. Without a doubt, Kansas City, Kansas, is doing much better than Kansas City, Missouri. Maybe there is something they can do to help Kansas City, Missouri.”

Ray Daniels, who retires at the end of this month as school superintendent in Kansas City, Kan., said he would consider serving as a consultant on a regional reform effort, or overseeing its implementation.

Achievement First got a $6.1 million, four-year commitment from the Gates foundation in 2003, but a year ago Gates representatives threatened to delay second-year funding because of concerns over how the reform was going at five high schools.

Daniels and Bernard Taylor, the superintendent in Kansas City, Mo., are excited about prospects of foundation funding that would include a regional approach to alternative education and adding instructional coaches and administrators. The Kansas City, Mo., district would explore expanding Achievement First to two other high schools as well as all its middle schools.

“I am encouraged by the fact that Gates asked us to do this,” said Taylor.

“We didn’t go to Gates and say, ‘Give us more.'”

For the Kansas City, Kan., district, the timing is particularly important because the $9.7 million grant it got from the Kansas City-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation for First Things First expires July 15.

The Kauffman foundation has agreed to give the district $1.25 million over two years to help smooth the transition.