As Congress heads into its August recess next week, action continues
on a number of K-12 education bills. Below is a clarification on the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that is currently in
conference, and updates on several other bills related to science and
math education.
Elementary and Secondary Education Act
FYI #100
described the current status of this reauthorization effort. For
clarification, the original House version of the bill was H.R. 1, and
Senate version was S.1. However, on the floor, the Senate substituted
its bill language into H.R. 1 and passed the bill under that number.
So the conference committee is now working to reconcile the two
differing versions of H.R. 1, and will continue its work when Congress
returns on September 4. Both versions authorize some form of Math and
Science Partnership initiative within the Department of Education.
Both versions of H.R. 1 can be found on the Library of Congress web site THOMAS.
For the House bill, see the version Engrossed in House (H.R. 1.EH);
for the Senate bill, see the version Engrossed Senate Amendment (H.R.
1.EAS). In the House version, the Math and Science Partnerships fall
under Title II - Preparing, Training, and Recruiting Quality
Teachers; Subpart 2 - Math and Science Partnerships. In the Senate
version, the Partnerships can be found under Title II - Teachers;
Part B - Mathematics and Science Partnerships.
Other Science Education Bills
On July 30, the House passed two other bills addressing K-12
science education: H.R. 1858, sponsored by Science Committee Chairman
Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), and H.R. 100, sponsored by Rep. Vern Ehlers
(R-MI). The main provisions of Boehlert's bill include authorization
of: a Math and Science Partnership program within NSF; a scholarship
to encourage science, math and engineering majors to pursue teaching;
and four national centers for research on education and learning (see
FYIs #67 and
80). Ehlers'
bill would authorize NSF grants to universities for training and
support of master teachers for math and science classrooms.
In the Senate, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), along with Edward
Kennedy (D-MA) and Pat Roberts (R-KS), has introduced S. 1262, a
companion bill to Boehlert's H.R. 1858. It has been referred to the
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Impact of Appropriations Bills
It is very likely that a final version of ESEA will be agreed upon
and signed into law this fall, with some form of Math and Science
Partnerships authorized within the Department of Education. The
Boehlert and Rockefeller bills would authorize similar partnerships
within NSF. It is unclear at this point what will happen with two such
similar partnership programs. It may come down to actions of the
relevant appropriations subcommittees (the VA/HUD subcommittee for
programs within NSF, and the Labor-HHS-Education subcommittee for
programs within the Education Department.)
So far, VA/HUD appropriators in both the House and Senate have
provided funding for Math and Science Partnerships within NSF. House
appropriators would provide $200 million as requested by the White
House and proposed in Boehlert's authorization bill, while Senate
appropriators would provide $190 million and call for a report on how
this program would affect current NSF science education programs (see
FYI #99). The
Labor-HHS appropriations subcommittees have not yet drafted their
bills.
