NSTA
Legislative Update
August 4, 2008
Congress Passes Final Bill to Reauthorize Federal Higher Education Programs
On July 31 both the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation to reauthorize federal higher education programs. In regards to teacher education and teacher training, the bill (H.R. 4137) consolidates the three current grants under Title II Teacher Quality Enhancement into one partnership program that will fund new induction programs, a teacher residency model, and mentoring initiatives and will require states to develop standards for teacher education programs and ensure these standards and information on teacher education are reported to the Department of Education.
The House Education and Labor Committee says the legislation will also:
Specifically, the science and technology educational opportunities in the legislation mentioned above include:
Congress granted 14 extensions to the previous Higher Education Act before this bill was passed. President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law. Future NSTA Legislative Updates will provide more information on the STEM-specific provisions of the bill.
Read the 18-page summary of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008
Read the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 passed last week by Congress
FY2009 Appropriations May Not Be Settled Until Next Year
The House and Senate Appropriations Committees responsible for funding science and education programs at the National Science Foundation have voted out their funding measures for FY2009 programs. But many believe that Congressional leaders will plan to adjourn at the end of September after passing legislation that would fund programs for FY2009—which begins this October--at current levels until well into next year.
National Science Foundation
In the House the National Science Foundation Education and Human Resources account is funded at $840m, an increase of $49.85 million, or 6.3 percent above the requested level of $790.41 million, and an increase of $114.66 million, or 16 percent over the level provided in FY ’08.
The House Appropriations Committee voted to fund the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program at $55 million, an increase of $38.4 million, or 331 percent over the President’s request.
The Math and Science Partnership Program is provided $61 million, an increase of $10 million, or 20 percent.
Additionally, the Committee has established a “Climate Change Education Program” with an initial investment of $10 million.
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved funding for the NSF Education and Human Resources at the requested level of $790.41 million, an increase of $64.8 million over the FY ’08 Consolidated Appropriations. The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program is provided $55 million, an increase of $43.4 million, or 378 percent, over the request.
Department of Education
The House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee bill would provide $198,978,000 in FY09 funding for the Department of Education Math and Science Partnership program, an increase of nearly $20 million over the Administration’s budget request for the ED MSPs and the FY2008 level. This is a major breakthrough as this program has been flat funded for several budget cycles. The House bill did not provide any funding for the Math Now initiative, which was authorized last year by the America COMPETES Act.
The Senate LHHS Subcommittee provided $178, 980,000 for the MSP program in FY2009, the same as in FY2008 and identical to the budget request. The Senate also provided no funding for the Math Now Initiative.
Senators Lieberman and Coleman Introduce STEM Education for 21st Century Act
On July 25 Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Norm Coleman (R-MN) introduced legislation based on the National Action Plan for Addressing the Critical Needs of the U.S. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education System issued last fall by the National Science Board.
The Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education for the 21st Century Act of 2008 will:
For more information on this legislation, please contact Jodi Peterson at jpeterson@nsta.org
Senator John Glenn Celebrates NASA’s 50th Anniversary on Capitol Hill Bill
On July 30 the House Committee on Science and Technology held a hearing to celebrate the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) 50th Anniversary.
Witnesses included Senator John Glenn; Norman Augustine, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, [retired] Lockheed Martin Corporation; and Dr. Maria Zuber, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Stephen Hawking provided a prerecorded message for the hearing.
Much of the discussion between witnesses and members of Congress focused on K-12 science and math education and workforce readiness.
Said Senator Glenn: ‘If I were asked a question about what made this country great and gave us a position of international leadership in a comparatively short period of time, my answer would have to be two things. One, we emphasized education, particularly in the hard sciences; math, science, technology, with K-12 education that became the norm for most of our people. Though not the major subject of this discussion, our K-12 education “system” is actually just over 14,700 school boards across the country, basically operating independently and too often more interested in saving money than in seeing that their children have a world competitive education ... The second element is basic research and this does apply to this discussion. Throughout our history, we put more effort into basic research, learned the new things first, and with that educated citizenry in a free democracy, new businesses were created, standard of living went up, and we were able to develop an economy that rapidly became the envy of the world.”
Said Norm Augustine: “The greatest challenge faced in the years ahead by the industry that supports NASA will be that of providing, and keeping, an adequate cadre of world-class scientists, engineers and engineering managers who choose to dedicate their careers to space activities. The same will be true of NASA.”
House Diversity and Innovation Caucus Issues Policy Recommendations
The Diversity and Innovation Caucus has issued eight policy recommendations for the 110th Congress and beyond that will increase participation by under-represented groups in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. The D&I Caucus was formed in March 2007 by six members of Congress—Representatives Reyes (D-TX); Eddie Bernice Johnson (C-TX); Honda (D-CA); Hinojosa (D-TX); Lofgren (D-CA) and Butterfield (D-NC)—to communicate the importance of promoting diversity in STEM for the achievement of America's innovation and competitiveness goals. To date the Caucus now has almost 60 members.
The recommendations, which address STEM education at both the K-12 and higher education levels, is based on feedback the Caucus received from over 80 stakeholder groups during a meeting at the Library of Congress earlier this year.
The D&I Caucus support these principal objectives to increase participation by under-represented groups in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
Read the D&I Caucus Dear Colleague letter on the Eight Point Policy Objectives
Read the D&I Caucus Dear Colleague letter to Members of Congress