By Kathy Amoroso
September 24, 2007

President Bush on August 9 signed the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science Act (America COMPETES – HR 2272).

The House'senate compromise bill combines elements of five bills already passed creating programs to encourage people to study and teach math and science, support high-risk technology research and increase funds for the National Science Foundation and other science-based agencies.

The broad-based legislation was sponsored by Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) in the Senate, and by Representative Bart Gordon (TN), Chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, and provides between $43.3 billion and $33.6 billion during the three-year period from 2008-2010 for research and education programs in the emerging technologies needed to compete in the global economy. The House voted 367-57 in favor of the conference report on HR 2272, “America COMPETES Act,” while the Senate approved the bill on a voice vote.

“Keeping America competitive will help us keep good jobs on our nation’s shores and ensure our ability to compete in a global marketplace. That process begins with a high-quality educational system and follows with ideas and investments in people here at home,” Representative Gordon said.

The bill increases research investment by doubling funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) from approximately $5.6 billion in FY 2006 to $11.2 billion in FY 2011; setting the Department of Energy’s Office of Science on track to double in funding over ten years, increasing from $3.6 billion in FY 2006 to over $5.2 billion in FY 2011; and increasing funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) from $703 million in FY 2008 to $937 million in FY 2011.

In addition, the legislation strengthens opportunities in science, technology, engineering math and critical foreign languages by:

• Authorizing competitive grants to States to promote better alignment of elementary and secondary education with the knowledge and skills needed for success in postsecondary education;

• Providing grants to train and hire about 25,000 new teachers in science and math for recruitment in high-need schools;

• Expanding low-income student access to Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs by increasing the number of teachers prepared to teach AP/IB and pre-AP/IB math, science, and foreign language courses in high-need schools;

• Strengthening the skills of thousands of math and science teachers by establishing training and education programs at summer institutes hosted at the National Laboratories and by increasing support for the Teacher Institutes for the 21st Century program at NSF.

• Creating partnerships between National Laboratories and local high-need high schools to establish centers of excellence in math and science education; and

• Providing Math Now grants to improve math instruction in elementary and middle schools and provide targeted help to struggling students so that all students can master grade-level mathematics standards.

The bill was approved as a measure to strengthen the U.S. position within the world’s scientific and engineering communities and to increase the declining number of science and engineering students graduating each year.