In marking up their FY 2006 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill
last week, Senate appropriators were not as generous as were their House
counterparts to the Education Department's Math and Science Partnership
program.
The Senate version of the Labor-HHS-Education funding bill (H.R. 3010),
would provide $178.6 million for the Math and Science Partnership (MSP)
program at the Department of Education. This is equal to the FY 2005
funding level for this program. The House version of the bill recommended
$190.0 million, an increase of 6.4 percent.
The Administration requested $269.0 million in FY 2006 funding for
the Education Department's MSP program, but planned to set aside $120.0
million of this amount for a competitive grant program dedicated strictly
to improving high school mathematics. This would have left only $149.0
million - effectively a $29.6 million decrease from the FY 2005 level
of $178.6 million - for the broader Math and Science Partnership program,
which is intended to promote improvements in science and math education
at the elementary and secondary level through partnerships among states,
school districts, university science or math departments, and other
eligible partners. In a repeat of last year's appropriations process,
neither the House nor the Senate bill agreed to provide this requested
set-aside for secondary mathematics.
Below is the relevant committee report language on the MSPs from Senate
Report 109-103:
"The Committee recommends $178,560,000 for the mathematics and
science partnerships program. The comparable funding level for fiscal
year 2005 is $178,560,000 and the budget request includes $269,000,000
for this purpose. These funds will be used to improve the performance
of students in the areas of math and science by bringing math and science
teachers in elementary and secondary schools together with scientists,
mathematicians, and engineers to increase the teachers' subject-matter
knowledge and improve their teaching skills. When the appropriation
for this program is $100,000,000 or greater, the Secretary is authorized
to award grants to States by a formula which includes consideration
of the number of children aged 5 to 17 below the poverty line. States
then are required to make grants competitively to eligible partnerships
to enable the entities to pay the Federal share of the costs of developing
or redesigning more rigorous mathematics and science curricula that
are aligned with State and local standards; creating opportunities for
enhanced professional development that improves the subject-matter knowledge
of math and science teachers; recruiting math and science majors; and
improving and expanding training of math and science teachers, including
the effective integration of technology into curricula and instruction.
"The budget request includes legislative language that would allow
the Secretary to use $120,000,000 in appropriated funds to make competitive
awards to projects designed to improve the mathematics learning of secondary
students. The Committee has not provided this requested authority."
The Improving Teacher Quality State Grants, which may be used to improve
teaching in all fields, were level-funded at the FY 2005 level of $2.9
billion. This is the same as the request, and the same as the House
recommendation.
The Senate bill, like its House counterpart, does not include any funding
for President Bush's proposal to expand student testing and accountability
to high schools. The committee report states, in part, "As noted
earlier, the High School Reform proposal has not been considered by
the appropriate authorizing committees of Congress, so the Committee
has not included the legislative language or provided the requested
funds."
The full text of the committee report is available at http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app06.html.
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