AIP FYI #58: Congressional Efforts to Increase Funding for Science Education Program
This is the time of year when most Members of Congress make known
their funding priorities to their colleagues on the
appropriations committees. At least four different “Dear
Colleague” letters have been, or soon will be, sent to Labor-HHS-
Education appropriators to urge greater FY 2003 funding than
requested for the Department of Education’s Math and Science
Partnerships. These letters demonstrate bipartisan, bicameral
support for this program to improve science and math education in
school districts across the country. The program received
significant congressional support from authorizers last year,
when it was authorized at $450 million in the 2001 “No Child Left
Behind” education reform bill, but it received only $12.5 million
in FY 2002 appropriations. Another $12.5 million has been
requested by the Bush Administration for FY 2003.
A letter by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), to be sent to Chairman
Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-PA) of the
Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, states in
part: “Both the House and the Senate recognized the critical
importance of improving math and science education at all grade
levels by authorizing the Math and Science Partnerships in the No
Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The program is designed to
provide math and science teachers with intensive, career-long
professional development through study, research, and interaction
with scientists, mathematicians, and engineers in higher
education and industry. Partnerships will also develop more
rigorous science and math curricula to ensure that all students
meet state standards and the skill level expected for post-
secondary study of math, science, and engineering. The
activities authorized under the Math and Science Partnerships
reflect many of the recommendations of the Glenn Commission
report.”
“Unfortunately, only $12.5 million was appropriated to the
partnerships for FY 2002. This falls far short of the minimum
commitment of $100 million needed to ensure that every state
receives the resources to design and implement Math and Science
Partnerships…. In addition, the No Child Left Behind Act
consolidated funding for the Eisenhower Math and Science
Professional Development program within the Title II Teacher
Quality block grant. This means that dedicated funding for math
and science professional development has significantly decreased
from FY 2001 levels. States have the option of using their
Teacher Quality funds for math and science, and last year’s
Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee report urges states to spend no
less on math and science professional development than they had
in the previous fiscal year, but this does not guarantee funding
for the Math and Science Partnerships…. We urge you to provide
a significant increase in funding to address the nation’s needs
in math and science education.” So far, seven Democratic
senators and one Independent have co-signed Durbin’s letter.
In an effort spearheaded by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), eleven
senators on the Senate Republican High Tech Task Force also wrote
to Harkin and Specter this month, noting that “in addition to
being important to the education community, this program is a
priority for the technology community. A highly educated
workforce is critical to ensuring that American companies
continue to be competitive in the global economy.”
In the House, 32 members of the New Democrat Coalition, led by
Reps. Cal Dooley (D-CA) and John Larson (D-CT), sent a letter to
appropriations leaders “to urge our strong support for full
funding for the math science partnerships authorized under Title
II, Part B of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001…. Although
Congress authorized $450 million for the program in the NCLB,
only $12.5 million was appropriated, which is a 95 percent
decrease in dedicated federal funding for math and science in the
Department of Education funding.” The letter concludes, “The
NCLB Act is a comprehensive overhaul of federal education
policy…. Let’s not do half of the job. Let’s make an
investment that will pay off for America’s future.”
Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-MI) has also drafted a letter to Labor-HHS-
Education Appropriations Chairman Ralph Regula (R-OH) and Ranking
Member David Obey (D-WI), urging them “to include a substantial
increase for the Department of Education’s (ED) Math and Science
Partnership program.” Ehlers’ letter, which has 19 co-signers so
far, explains the difference between the Math and Science
Partnerships in NSF and those in the Education Department: “Last
year, Congress appropriated $160 million for Math and Science
partnerships within the National Science Foundation…. The NSF
initiative is designed to develop model partnership initiatives
to improve science and math education with ED partnerships
implementing and scaling up best practices discovered from these
NSF models. As a competitive program, the NSF program is not
intended to provide every state with targeted funds for math and
science professional development. In contrast, the Ed
partnerships – if funded over $100 million – would provide
funding to every state through formula grants…. We urge you to
improve our nation’s K-12 math and science education by funding
the Department of Education’s Math and Science Partnership
program as closely as possible to the authorized level.”
Ehlers’ bipartisan letter will probably be sent late next week.
The signatories so far are: J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), Rod Blagovich
(D-IL), Donald Payne (D-NJ), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Mark Green (R-
WI), Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), Jay Inslee (D-WA), Lloyd Doggett (D-
TX), John Conyers (D-MI), Lois Capps (D-CA), John Baldacci (D-
ME), Marion Berry (D-AR), John Spratt (D-SC), Michael McNulty (D-
NY), Bob Etheridge (D-NC), Ken Valvert (R-CA), Jerry Costello (D-
IL), David Bonior (D-MI) and J. Randy Forbes (R-VA).
Ehlers is still seeking additional signatures on his letter. If
you wish to contact your Representative about signing this
letter, you may find House office phone numbers at
http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html or by calling the
Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121, and email addresses can be
found at http://www.house.gov/writerep/.
Although the timing is not yet certain, House appropriators are
expected to begin drafting their spending bills this month, with
the Senate likely to follow suit in June.
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Audrey T. Leath
Media and Government Relations Division
The American Institute of Physics
fyi@aip.org
(301) 209-3094
http://www.aip.org/gov
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