House and Senate to Reconcile Budget Resolutions

With the expectation of an impending announcement of more specific numbers to President Obama’s March budget proposal, both the House and Senate passed similar budget resolutions of their own which now need to be reconciled. Within both budget resolutions, there is much to be offered in way of education.

Upon passage of the House resolution Rep. John M. Spratt, Jr. (D-SC), Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget, stated “Our resolution supports the President’s goals of putting the budget back on a fiscally sustainable path while advancing key priorities in health care, energy, and education.” “…These are goals that the American people support. I was pleased to see our budget pass the House.”

Moreover, the House Budget Committee prepared a summary of its budget resolution that emphasizes the various similarities existing between the House budget resolution and the Presidents budget. The summary included the following education aspects:

“Builds on Recovery Act’s Historic Investment in Education — Our budget includes the $100 billion in education funding provided in the Recovery Act to help states maintain elementary, secondary, and higher education services. The Recovery Act targeted funds to Title I (Education for the Disadvantaged), Head Start, and special education, where the funding can be used to train more teachers to provide needed services in the future. In addition, Congress this year increased the maximum Pell Grant award by $619 to a total of $5,350– the largest annual increase in the program’s history – and created the American Opportunity Tax Credit to give eligible students a partially refundable tax credit of up to $2,500 to cover college costs.

Makes College More Affordable and Accessible — Our budget embraces the President’s goal of further investments in educating Americans from early childhood through post-secondary education and training. It accommodates the President’s proposal to continue raising the maximum Pell grant award in a fiscally responsible way, and to provide additional assistance to help more low-income high school graduates attend and complete college.

Increases Education Funding — The budget matches the President’s increase education funding for targeted services that will raise student achievement using both proven practices and innovative approaches that bring more of the community into cooperative efforts to educate our children.

Supports Early Childhood Education — Our budget supports education at a young age through a range of approaches, including the President’s initiatives to help strengthen and expand early childhood education programs, and paid-for increases in a new evidence-based home visiting services and child nutrition that includes school meals.”

In addition, the House budget resolution also references the America COMPETES Act. Directly written into the Resolution it states:

“it is the sense of the House that:
the House should provide sufficient investments to enable our Nation to continue to be the world leader in education, innovation, and economic growth as envisioned in the goals of the America COMPETES Act.”

As for the Senate budget resolution, it “fully funds the President’s request for education and training programs over the five-year budget window.” It emphasizes such areas as early childhood education, “expanding Pell Grants”, Title I, achievement gaps, and the federal funding share of the Disabilities and Education Act. Furthermore, the Senate resolution states in the overview printed in the resolution that “employers indicate that we are not producing enough trained workers with the skills in the modern workplace, particularly in high-growth sectors such as health care and green energy technologies.” Thus, upon passage of the Senate budget resolution, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said: “We invest in education to prepare our workforce to compete in the global economy.”

The Congress will look to reconcile both budget resolutions now that it is back in session.

Rep Bart Gordon Gives Written Testimony on FY 2010 Budget

Rep Bart Gordon (D-TN), Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, submitted written testimony to the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies on the upcoming FY 2010 budget. Although the testimony addressed the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), it offered significant input on the STEM education funding within the National Science Foundation (NSF).

With strong emphasis on the STEM education mission of the NSF, Rep Gordon stated “I support the Administration’s budget request of $7 billion for NSF in Fiscal Year 2010” and continued “however, I am requesting that the Subcommittee consider providing slightly more funding to NSF, if needed, to accommodate full funding of the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program and to provide an adequate funding increase to MSP (Math and Science Partnership), without sacrificing necessary funding for the other important programs within NSF.”

As for specific numbers for the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program and MSP Rep Gordon said “I am very pleased that the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program was fully funded in Fiscal Year 2009 at the authorized level of $115 million ($55 million in the Fiscal Year 2009 omnibus appropriations bill and $60 million in the Economic Recovery Act). I urge the Subcommittee to once again demonstrate its commitment to this important program in Fiscal Year 2010. Although the America COMPETES Act authorized $140.5 million for the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, I am requesting that the Program be funded at $70 million in Fiscal Year 2010. This represents an increase over the Fiscal Year 2009 omnibus appropriations bill funding level that is consistent with the increase laid out in the America COMPETES Act. I also urge the Subcommittee to provide for a comparable increase in funding above the Fiscal Year 2009 appropriation for the MSP program.”

Aside from NSF, Rep. Gordon also testified on behalf of NASA and NIST, but the testimony did not focus directly on STEM education programs. He did say that he was “pleased that the Administration has requested $18.7 billion for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Fiscal Year 2010.” The testimony for NIST focused on programs such as the Manufacturing Extension Partnership and the Technology Innovation Program.

Legislation To Coordinate STEM Education Programs Advances

Despite the fact that numerous federal agencies invest and support STEM education programs, there is little to no coordination amongst them.

In an attempt to synchronize and monitor STEM programs, legislation recently proposed seeks to remedy this situation. Rep. Barton Gordon (D-TN), Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, along with Representatives Daniel Lipinski (D-IL) and Vernon Ehlers (R-MI), Co-Chairs of the STEM Education Caucus and Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX), have introduced H. R. 1709, the STEM Education Coordination Act which on March 31, 2009 advanced from the House Subcommittee on Research and Science Education. The Bill aims to “establish a committee under the National Science and Technology Council with the responsibility to coordinate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education activities and programs of all Federal agencies.”

According to the bill, the committee would specifically:

(1) coordinate the STEM education activities and programs of the Federal agencies;

(2) develop, implement through the participating agencies, and update once every 5 years a 5-year STEM education strategic plan, which shall--

(A) specify and prioritize annual and long-term objectives;

(B) specify the metrics which will be used to assess progress toward achieving the objectives;

(C) describe the approaches that will be taken by each participating agency to assess the effectiveness of its STEM education programs and activities; and

(D) with respect to subparagraph (A), describe the role of each agency in supporting programs and activities designed to achieve the objectives; and

(3) establish, periodically update, and maintain an inventory of federally sponsored STEM education programs and activities, including documentation of assessments of the effectiveness of such programs and activities.

This is not the first bill to have been introduced that would provide coordination of all the STEM Education activities at Federal agencies. The Enhancing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Act of 2008, introduced by Rep Mike Honda (D-CA) and President Obama while he was a Senator last year, looked to achieve similar goals. According to a press release by Rep Mike Honda, he plans on reintroducing his bill again.