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Senate Appropriators on FY 2003 Science Education
Funding
Before leaving for the August recess, the Senate Appropriations
Committee completed work on all 13 of its FY 2003 spending bills. Both
the Department of Education (funded in the Labor-HHS- Education bill, S.
2766), and the National Science Foundation (funded in the VA/HUD bill,
S. 2797) support programs to improve K-12 science education. Details of
the Senate appropriators' recommendations for FY 2003 science education
funding are provided below. House appropriators have not completed their
versions of either the Labor-HHS-Education or VA/HUD bills, and will
return to work on them after Labor Day. Once the Senate and House have
both passed versions of the funding bills, conferences must be held to
work out the differences in the versions of each bill.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
The Department of Education provides funding specifically to improve
science and math education through its Mathematics and Science
Partnerships. In addition, funds are available through the Improving
Teacher Quality State Grants program for recruitment, support,
certification and professional development of teachers in all fields,
including science and math. For FY 2003, Senate appropriators would
provide $3,100.0 million for the Improving Teacher Quality grants, an
increase of $250.0 million, or 8.8 percent, over FY 2002 funding.
The Mathematics and Science Partnerships program was created last
year in the "No Child Left Behind" education reform bill and authorized
at $450 million, with the intent of reaching high-need school districts
in all states. The Partnership program received FY 2002 funding of only
$12.5 million. Senate appropriators would provide $25.0 million for the
Partnerships in FY 2003. This is a 100 percent increase over current
funding, but still thought by many to be insufficient to effectively
reach all states. Explanatory language from the Senate Appropriations
Committee report (S. Rpt. 107-216) follows:
State grants for improving teacher quality: "The No
Child Left Behind Act requires States to ensure that all teachers
teaching in core academic subjects are `highly qualified' by the end
of the 2005-2006 school year. The Committee is concerned that States
will have difficulty meeting this requirement, given the number of new
teachers who will have to be hired before then to replace those who
are retiring and to accommodate growing student enrollments.
Therefore, the Committee recommends a $250,000,000 increase over the
budget request and the fiscal year 2002 appropriation for the
Improving Teacher Quality State Grants program, for a total of
$3,100,000,000.... States and LEAs may use the funds for a range of
activities related to the certification, recruitment, professional
development and support of teachers. Activities may include reforming
teacher certification and licensure requirements, addressing
alternative routes to State certification of teachers, recruiting
teachers and principals, and implementing teacher mentoring systems,
teacher testing, merit pay and merit-based performance systems....
These funds may also be used by districts to hire teachers to reduce
class sizes."
Mathematics and science partnerships: "For
mathematics and science partnerships, the Committee recommends
$25,000,000, which is $12,500,000 more than the fiscal year 2002
appropriation and the budget request. These funds will be used to
improve the performance of students in the areas of math and science
by bringing math and science teachers in elementary and secondary
schools together with scientists, mathematicians, and engineers to
increase the teachers' subject-matter knowledge and improve their
teaching skills. The Secretary is authorized to award grants, on a
competitive basis, to eligible partnerships to enable the entities to
pay the Federal share of the costs of developing or redesigning more
rigorous mathematics and science curricula that are aligned with State
and local standards; creating opportunities for enhanced professional
development that improves the subject-matter knowledge of math and
science teachers; recruiting math and science majors; and improving
and expanding training of math and science teachers, including the
effective integration of technology into curricula and
instruction."
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
NSF's Education and Human Resources Activity would receive $947.7
million in the Senate VA/HUD bill, an increase of $72.7 million, or 8.3
percent, over current funding. NSF's Math and Science Partnership
program - separate from the Partnership program within the Department of
Education - would receive $120.0 million, a decrease of $40.0 million or
25 percent from current funding, to be combined with carryover funding
from FY 2002 that has not yet been used. Many of NSF's other science
education programs would also be increased under this bill. Explanatory
language from Senate Report 107-222 is provided below:
"The Committee provided $160,000,000 last year to start the
new Math and Science Partnership program. It appears that NSF will not
be able to obligate all of these funds in fiscal year 2002 and as much
as $30,000,000 may be carried over into fiscal year 2003. Therefore
the Committee is providing $120,000,000 in new budget authority for
this program in fiscal year 2003. Together with the estimated
carryover, this will provide up to $150,000,000 for this program in
fiscal year 2003.
"To support additional K-12 math and science education
efforts, the Committee is also providing a total of $223,550,000 for
elementary, secondary, and informal science education, of which
$37,460,000 is from the H-1B nonimmigrant petitioner fees.
"The Committee is aware of the unique and important
relationship between historically black colleges and universities
(HBCUs) and their surrounding communities, especially with schools
located in some of the nation's most underserved, economically
disadvantaged, and isolated areas, and recognizes that there is a
natural linkage between school districts with high minority
enrollments and HBCUs. The Committee expects the National Science
Foundation will take explicit actions to include HBCUs among the set
of institutions of higher education participating in its efforts to
increase this nation's supply of math and science teachers.
"Recent data suggest a number of important trends regarding
the development of the Nation's high-tech workforce. Student interest
has shifted markedly from the physical sciences and mathematics to the
life sciences and computer science. This trend seems to parallel
Federal funding trends for research support. In addition, in a number
of fields, the percentage of degrees awarded to foreign students has
been steadily increasing. At the same time, the demand for jobs
requiring technical expertise is growing. Given the demands of our
knowledge-based economy, the United States needs to increase the
number and diversity of our scientific and technical workforce and
facilitate an understanding of basic scientific principles among non-
scientists. For this reason, the Committee has focused on a set of NSF
programs that relate to education and training at all levels of math
and science education.
"The Committee has increased the budget request for NSF's
graduate and professional education programs by $25,000,000. These
additional funds are to be used to increase graduate student stipends
in the fellowship programs and the traineeship program to a level of
$30,000 per year. The Committee recognizes that graduate stipends in
science and engineering need to be made more attractive to students to
compensate for the cost of education and mounting student debt, and to
offset opportunities for higher salaries offered by employers to
science and engineering baccalaureate degree holders.
"The Informal Science Education program, which provides
support to museums and science centers, is funded at $70,000,000. This
represents the first increase in this program in 3 years.
"The undergraduate `tech talent' expansion program is
increased by $20,000,000. The Committee is informed that nearly
$70,000,000 was requested by the proposals submitted for the fiscal
year 2002 competition in which only $5,000,000 was available. The
Committee is also providing an additional $5,000,000 to increase the
Advanced Technological Education program. This important NSF program
supports undergraduate science education activities at the Nation's
community colleges. The Committee strongly encourages NSF to develop a
robust and comprehensive plan for undergraduate science and
engineering education that builds on the `tech talent' program and
other NSF undergraduate activities.
"The Committee is recommending an increase for the
HBCU-Research University Science & Technology (THRUST) initiative
within the Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology
(CREST) program of $10,000,000. Eligibility for THRUST should not
exclude CREST recipients, but funds provided in fiscal year 2003
should be used to first fully-fund multi-year awards to recipients of
THRUST awards in the program's first year.
"The Committee does not agree with the budget request to
reduce funding for the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority
Participation program (LSAMP) or the Historically Black Colleges and
Universities--Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP). Both of these programs
play important roles in attracting and retaining minorities into
science and engineering. In lieu of the reductions proposed by the
Administration, the Committee is adding $5,000,000 to LSAMP and
$5,000,000 to HBCU-UP.
"The Committee has included $110,000,000 for the
Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) in
this account in order to allow full implementation of the
infrastructure awards as well as continuation of other activities. The
Committee's recommendation is $35,000,000 more than the budget request
and reverses the Administration's proposed $10,000,000 reduction from
the fiscal year 2002 level. These funds are necessary due to the
increase in program eligibility. In addition, the Committee notes that
at least $30,000,000 will be available for EPSCoR activities from the
research programs through their share of
co-funding."
Audrey T. Leath
Media and Government Relations
Division
American Institute of Physics
fyi@aip.org
(301)
209-3094
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