In math & science, an 'F':

...All of these Senate bills have been referred to the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, whose Chairman, Senator Orrin Hatch introduced Mr...

...Since 1970 there has been a trend in the U.S toward a reduction in high school graduation requirements - only one-third of America's sixteen thousand school districts require more than one year of math and science for graduation...

...The coalition divides over local school officials' support for initiatives such as salary bonuses designed to relieve the math and science teacher shortage - a device not enthusiastically received by the teacher unions...

...One factor may be the politics of the 1984 presidential election...

...On another side of the table are college and university professors and administrators faced with obsolete laboratory and instructional equipment and faculty recruitment and retention problems...

...A math and science education bill almost passed in the lame duck session, but was stymied by a conflict between the House Education and Labor Committee and the House Science and Technology Committee...

...Beginning math teachers with bachelor degrees now earn only sixty percent of what bachelor degrees candidates in math and science earn in private industry...

...he or she is also responsible for the maintenance and evaluation of students' progress - important particularly at the elementary and secondary levels...

...The same well-founded worry about huge deficits that makes the administration oppose H.R...

...Other Senate bills focus primarily on the math and science teacher shortage...

...1310 has also led it to call for drastic cuts in federal education programs...

...national examinations, and inspects the quality of instruction...

...Mobility between states, and at times even within states, is encumbered by differences among local school salary schedules and restrictions on the amount of prior service determining a new teacher's salary...

...The funds are to be distributed on the basis of the number of high-school age children residing in each state...

...THE ADMINISTRATION opposed the House-passed measure because it feels that the funding level is too high, that there is insufficient targeting of programs, and that the bill would lead to undue federal intrusion into local responsibilities...

...offer future employment opportunities for the young...

...The second title, the National Engineering and Scientific Personnel Act, drawn up by the Science Technology Committee, authorizes $100 million for an Engineering and Science Personnel Fund to be administered by the National Science Foundation...

...The graduation of secondary school teachers has declined during the last decade by 64 percent in science and 78 percent in mathematics...

...Accordingly, the House bill and many of the Senate proposals directly address the concerns which the president would leave to localities or the market...

...One reason for this decline in student performance has been the loss of qualified math and science teachers...

...Yet a few isolated incidents do not promise a national effort...

...More than one-third of the five-year savings the president proposes in federal benefits and services to individuals are to be obtained from education programs - sharply reducing funds for bilingual and vocational education, terminating the Indian education grant program, eliminating certain grants for support services for low-income students, and so on...

...These higher education interests tend to line up with the scientific community, with the scientists' professional associations, and with such groups as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in favoring the Science and Technology Committee and the programs under the administration of the National Science Foundation...

...Referred to the Armed Services Committee, this proposal establishes a program to provide high school graduates with technical training in skills needed by the Armed Forces in return for a commitment for enlisted service...

...The president's consternation at American complacency may reflect, to a degree, a situation of his own making...

...The jurisdictional dispute reflects an underlying conflict between contesting interests seeking a piece of an ever smaller pie...

...Over the last two years, the list of senators introducing or co-sponsoring math and science education bills has looked like an Iowa Democratic caucus checklist - Senators Cranston, Glenn, Hart, and Hollings...

...Higher salaries for teachers in short supply such as in math and science have been suggested to the states by Education Secretary T. H. Bell, but this runs counter to the long-held position of the politically formidable National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers...

...Why the change of heart...

...Data from the National Center for Education Statistics, based on a survey of local school districts and an Education Week survey of state educational agencies, reveal shortages in certain parts of the nation and surpluses in other areas...

...Hundreds of other U.S...

...It's as simple as aid to math and science education...

...While we grew complacent, others have acted...

...How do these joint-employment proposals affect the profession of teaching...

...THE HOUSE IS already much further along in addressing the math and science problem since it considered and passed H.R...

...and for the promotion of public understanding of science and mathematics...

...This coalition of university educators and scientists is often aided by the high technology sectors of the private industrial community, who together with the Armed Service are concerned with the immediate need for technical and professional personnel...

...Of course, it doesn't take a math major to figure out that with a 60 percent wage differential, it's still a better deal to enter industry upon graduation and pay back the loan even at a high interest rate...

...Don Fuqua, sought exclusive claim over the measure by choosing to distribute funds through NSF - which is under its jurisdiction...

...Legislation offered by Senator Claiborne Pell (joined by Senator Cranston, among others) has been entitled the "Education for Economic Security Act," and Senator Paul Tsongas has introduced the "High Technology Morrill Act" - harking back to the Morrill Act of 1862 which created the land grant college system...

...After meeting teacher training needs, local authorities may use funds appropriated under this provision for curriculum development, for the acquisition of instructional materials and equipment such as computers, and for joint programs with other public and private agencies...

...Determined not to be embarrassed by having an in-house jurisdictional dispute block a major proposal - particularly one given presidential attention - Speaker O'Neill and Majority Leader Wright reportedly got Chairmen Fuqua and Perkins to work out a compromise package after summarily dismissing the administration proposal...

...Pell's measure provides, on a matching funds basis, grants to the states to upgrade instruction in math, science, computer learning and instruction, foreign language, and vocational education...

...The administration offers solutions to these larger, long-range problems of getting and keeping high-quality math and science teachers at all levels of education...

...In addition to an extensive private education system, there are almost sixteen thousand local school districts (with student populations ranging from ten to a million) within fifty separate state systems with differing certification requirements and varying degrees of control over curricula...

...After noting that Japan, with less than half our population, graduates appreciably more engineers, the president called for a "quality education initiative" as one of his four major education "goals" (the others being tax-exempt college savings accounts, tuition tax credits, and the school prayer amendment...

...His budget submission to Congress allocates $50 million for each of four years to the Department of Education for block grants to the states for scholarships to college graduates who can become qualified to teach secondary math or science in one year...

...Moreover, the job of a teacher goes beyond lecturing and supervising laboratory work...

...An additional five programs are authorized to improve post-secondary education in mathematics, science, and foreign languages (the latter a contribution of foreign-language advocate Rep...

...Yet the problem is not all that clearly drawn...

...Eleven bills have been introduced in the Senate alone so far this year...

...At least 75 percent of each state's funds must be allocated to local education agencies...

...Japanese and Soviet students get at least two more years of science and math than do American students...

...Its House companion was introduced by Representative Charles Bennett...

...bridge the trade gap with Japan...

...According to a 1980 presidential report on science and engineering, the United States now ranks fourth - behind the Soviet Union, West Germany, and Japan - in overall scientific literacy...

...strengthen American defense manpower needs...

...Recipients will be required to teach two years for each year of scholarship assistance received, or repay the scholarship with interest...

...Teacher supply and demand data are almost always aggregated by state and do not indicate the degree to which some school districts within a state have a shortage and others a surplus...

...The Science Committee, chaired by Rep...

...Aiming to encourage "a substantial upgrading of math and science instruction," Mr...

...Senator Christopher Dodd's bill authorizes financial assistance for a continuing education program to increase competency, and Senator Glenn has introduced a measure which provides for low-cost loans to college students...

...Title I is the Emergency Science and Mathematics Education Act, contributed mostly by the Education and Labor Committee...

...Unlike the U.S., the central government of these industrialized nations significantly determines the curriculum, sets JEREMIAH BARUCH is the pseudonym of a Washington writer with a position in government...

...Also proposed in the president's budget is an increase of $5 million over last fiscal year for the National Science Foundation's (NSF) secondary school science and mathematics improvement program...

...The primary use of these funds is to improve instructional skills and knowledge of teachers throughout in-service training programs and to recertify teachers of other subjects as math and science teachers...

...Any attempt by Congress to impose federal standards in relieving inter-state problems related to teacher certification and retirement would not be favored by independent-minded state and local education officials and would be actively opposed by the administration as unwarranted federal intrusion...

...for two-year and community college faculty development in high technology and scientific fields...

...Reagan's proposal, the Science and Mathematics Teacher Development Act, on March 8. There have also been attempts to address the problem through the tax code...

...The measure authorizes $250 million in FY 1984 for a new state program of grants from the Department of Education to improve math and science education at the elementary and secondary levels...

...The schools in 1980 lost five times as many science and and math teachers to industry as to retirement...

...The Houston school district, where teachers' unions are not particularly strong, supplements math and science teachers' annual pay with an extra $2000...

...Any long-term solution to the math and science teacher shortage must take the salary issue into account...

...The bill would receive its funding from 3 percent of the revenues from the sale of energy and minerals resources on federal lands - hence the historical allusion to the Morrill Act...

...These groups all support in-service training, curriculum development, fellowships, or loan programs administered by the Department of Education to improve math and science instruction...

...The House bill, incorporating two separate titles, reflects its parentage in two different committees...

...A Senate controlled by Republicans but full of Democratic presidential aspirants may have a difficult time hammering out a compromise with the administration, on the one hand, and the House bill, on the other...

...Twenty percent of the funds granted to state agencies are to be reserved for an incentive grant program in which any public or private local funds would be matched on a fifty-fifty basis by state funds for activities such as private-sector training of teachers or private-sector instruction programs in schools...

...On one side of the table are the natural allies of the Education Committee - classroom teachers and their professional associations and unions, and local school officials...

...1310 also includes requirements that state and local authorities ensure the full participation of women, minorities, and private-school children in these programs...

...Senator Charles Grassley's bill amends the tax code to encourage contributions of equipment to post-secondary vocational education programs and to allow a credit to employers for vocational education courses taught by an employee without compensation and for temporary employment of full-time vocational educational instructors...

...Tsongas's High Technology Morrill Act establishes matching federal assistance for joint initiatives of private industry, educational institutions, and state governments to strengthen science, engineering, and technical education...

...As a matter of national policy, they promote comprehensive science and math for everyone, not only those planning to specialize...

...So many key congressional figures have backed this new cure-all that it was among the first major pieces of legislation to be considered by the House of Representatives in the 98th Congress...

...High technology industries have shown interest in the potential staffing and tax benefits that would arise from proposed cooperative staffing options with educational institutions...

...While deploring the fact that science and math education had reached such an unhappy state that it threatened the nation's military and economic security, the president offered no major administration role...

...Another impetus for the change of heart may be that the president's leadership image has not been served well when the bandwagon on the Hill doesn't play to his tune...

...T. alone spends $6 million a year to train 14,000 employees in basic arithmetic and writing skills during office hours...

...Perhaps...

...Reagan said that the United States is in danger of falling behind West Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union in scientific advancement unless the nation's educational quality improves...

...Senator Gary Hart (joined by Senator Hollings, among others) has introduced his math and science education bill as the "American Defense Education Act," an apparent offspring of the Daddy of federal aid to education - the National Defense Education Act of 1959 which was America's answer to Sputnik...

...The principle of tax credits for equipment contribution has perhaps received the most publicity in the "Apple Bill" (named because of the promotion given by the computer firm), introduced in the House and Senate last session and rein-troduced this year, which allows income tax deductions for corporations that donate computers to primary and secondary schools...

...For instance, another Glenn proposal (which was originally introduced by Representative Dave McCurdy in the House) provides federal income tax credits for industries participating in a joint employment program, or sharing equipment with educational institutions...

...He won few friends with his written message to a May 1982 conclave of scientists, educators, and business leaders called by the National Academy of Sciences to examine weaknesses in the way math and science are taught in elementary and secondary schools...

...The average SAT math score in the United States continues to decline, from 502 in 1963 (the post-Sputnik high) to 466 in 1981...

...Chiefly, the Hart bill calls for participating local school districts to be entitled to a basic payment of two percent of the average per pupil expenditure in the state, with an incentive of an additional two percent payment for those districts which demonstrate that their programs met the proposed goals for the year to improve instruction and student achievement in math, science, communication skills, foreign languages, and technology...

...We must keep that edge, and to do so we need to begin renewing the basics - starting with our education system...

...President Carter had asked for a FY 1982 funding level of $111.9 million...

...Certain Senate measures have been referred to the Senate Finance Committee (the Ways and Means Committee for comparable bills introduced in the House...

...corporations also report deficient math skills across a wide range of jobs classification...

...Obviously the president also sees advantages in positioning himself as an advocate of a high-tech economic renaissance rather than as a protector/ protectionist of industry...

...This wonder program doesn't operate in outer space, doesn't require millions of Western acreage to be dug up, and won't plunge the budget significantly deeper in the red...

...for programs to promote the use of industrial personnel and resources in education programs...

...In his State of the Union address, President Reagan affirmed that, "We Americans are still the technological leaders in most fields...

...The administration continues to cite the lack of qualified math and science teachers as the major identified problem...

...According to a survey of the National Science Teachers Association, 640,000 children who wanted to take science and math courses could not do so for lack of teachers...

...An alternative approach, directed specifically at national defense needs, was introduced on March 14 by Senator Strom Thurmond...

...Now the president has decided that this NSF program should again be built up - albeit by a relatively small amount...

...Its proposal, in the words of Assistant Education Secretary Anne Graham, "would alleviate the immediate high school shortage while giving the nation's educational system time to solve" the underlying problems...

...Under the bill's guidelines, a project would be eligible for the 50 percent matching federal grant, if private industry contributes 20 percent, and states 30 percent, of the total cost...

...On March 8, before five hundred prize-winning science and math students in Florida, Mr...

...Congress, meanwhile, has seen fit to ride the defense preparedness and economic development issues for all their worth...

...The growing needs of high-technology and energy-related industry run afoul of declining math and science skills...

...His fiscal 1982 budget sought virtual elimination of the NSF math and science education program (almost half of NSF's entire budget was once consumed by science education...

...The administration takes the leap of faith that a math-and-science policy beneficial to the nation as a whole will somehow arise from myriad state and local decisions...

...The president steadfastly maintains that elementary and secondary education is a state and local responsibility, a concern he claims is not being adequately addressed...

...The Education Committee, under the leadership of Chairman Carl Perkins, fought for and gained shared consideration, amending the proposal to distribute funds through the Education Department - which happens to be within its jurisdiction...

...The momentum for math and science education assistance has been gathering throughout last year - notwithstanding President Reagan...

...Senator Pete Domenici has introduced a proposal establishing merit scholarships for college students and an award program for teaching excellence conducted by the National Science Foundation...

...IS THERE an irony to the president's proposal...

...Paul Simon), including $20 million for five thousand teaching scholarships in the 1984-85 academic year...

...The two committees could not come to an agreement in the last days of the session, and the measure died...

...This legislation, promoted by President Reagan, has received the attention of business, professional, and newspaper editorials from across the country...

...Twenty-five percent of those currently teaching math and science were found by the National Science Teachers Association to be planning to leave the profession for better paying jobs in industry...

...What form the measure ultimately takes will depend upon the degree to which the diverse interested constituencies - teachers, parents, school administrators, professors, scientists, businessmen - let their representatives know that decline in math and science education is a national problem demanding a national response.problem demanding a national response...

...1310 on March 2, by a vote of 348-54...

...In the last two years the administration has chipped away to the remaining funds to the point that only $15 million would be left in 1983 for graduate fellowships for secondary math and science teachers, as compared to $81 million in 1981...

...and maybe, someday, cure the common cold...

...The president has focused his attention on the math and science teacher shortage as the major problem of the educational system...

...Reagan proposed a block grant to the states: funds to the states for this general purpose and used largely at their discretion...

...Scholarships would be for $5,000 for twelve months, and recipients would have to agree to teach for a reasonable period of time - to be worked out between the individual and the local or state education agency...

...You may well ask what's left out...

...The NSF, they feel, is better situated to attend to the needs of the "hard" science...

...Congress, on the other hand, does have faith in itself as the representative body of the nation...

...Furthermore, the great concern over insufficient federal revenues to control future deficits diminishes the prospects of the congressional proposals using the tax code to provide incentives for private industry to allow employees to be used as part-time teachers or for teachers to be jointly employed by both school and private industry...

...1310 contains two titles...

...In fact, this year both Alabama and Kentucky have initiated state-sponsored college loan programs with a "forgiveness provision" for those who enter math and science teaching...

...Teachers willing to relocate, however, are discouraged by the lack of reciprocity in retirement systems and variations in teacher certification requirements...

...And the schools will have to do it without much federal help...

...Between 1975 and 1980 remedial math enrollment in public colleges has increased ten times faster than enrollment...

...Yet the nation faces the responses of 45 states to a 1981 NSF survey - 43 reported teacher shortages in mathematics, 42 in physics and 38 in chemistry...

...Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the problem is the loss of qualified teachers to higher paying jobs in business and industry...

...Statistics indicate the end result...

...Those states wishing to receive a grant would be required to submit an annual report describing how the state or local education agency - whichever operates the program - would distribute the funds...

...The fund sets as a national policy the maintenance of an adequate supply of technical, engineering, and scientific personnel, and the monies would be used for grants matching private or public funds on a fifty-fifty basis in such activities as research in engineering, science, and technical fields...

...By December 1981, half of the math and science teachers were deemed unqualified by the National Science Teachers Association...