NSF Budget and STEM Education

There is much to be content with in the proposed FY 2010 budget for the National Science Foundation. The proposal is $7.045 billion which is an 8.5% increase over FY 2009. However, the bulk of the increase in the budget did not occur in the Education and Human Resources Directorate (EHR) which houses most of the NSF STEM education related funding but instead to the other directorates. For FY 2010 it is proposed that EHR receive $857.76 million, which is only a 1.5% increase over FY 2010.

Despite the nominal increase in the EHR budget, STEM education programs are still being funded. Several of them include:

“Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) (9 percent increase to $68.88 million) awardees prepare doctoral students by integrating research and education in innovative ways that are tailored to the unique requirements of newly emerging interdisciplinary fields and new career options.

Discovery Research K-12 ($108.50 million) develops more effective tools and resources for teachers and students that will support inquiry-based classroom practices and a more intensive scientifically-based assessment of the efficacy of these resources.

Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program ($55.0 million) enables institutions to develop and implement programs to prepare STEM undergraduate majors--and mid-career STEM professionals--to become K-12 science and mathematics teachers.

The Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program (4.6 percent decrease to $58.22 million) links K-12 teachers with their colleagues in higher education. In FY 2010, MSP will continue to build capacity and integrate the work of higher education with that of K-12 to strengthen and reform science and mathematics education. NSF estimates that in FY 2010 over 215,000 people will be directly involved in NSF programs and activities, receiving salaries, stipends, or participant support. Additionally, NSF programs indirectly impact many millions of people through activities including workshops, public outreach (including online social networking tools), informal science activities such as museums, television, videos, and journals, and dissemination of curricula and other teaching materials.” (NSF Budget Overview)

The budget proposal can be viewed here.