Starbase youth STEM program at Barksdale faces closure
BOSSIER CITY, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A national program funded through the U.S. Department of Defense faces closure as a budget battle in Congress puts financing in flux.
Starbase is a national educational program funded by the Department of Defense. The Starbase for Caddo and Bossier students is located on Barksdale Airforce Base. All fifth graders go through the program, which is STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) based.
The program is funded through the federal budget, which has not been approved for 2025. Because funding is not available the program officially ended at the end of January, however, our local program continues thanks to a local non-profit providing funding until the end of February.
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Many people in our community have been through the program
Program Director Richard Scott said, 'We were blown away by the support on social media. We did a little post just to let everybody know what's going on and I think this morning there were a hundred thousand views and five hundred shares.'
The hope is that funding will be included in the upcoming federal budget and that the budget will be approved. If non-profit funding can not be found, the program will be shut down.
We reached out to Senators Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy to ask about the status of funding for Starbase, however, we did not hear back, if we do we will update this article.
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