A multi-billion dollar competitiveness bill headed for President Bush’s desk has several key provisions to attract more minority students to careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
The America Competes Act would authorize new spending on math, science and technology issues through the rest of the decade, much of it focused on the National Science Foundation. But tucked into the bill are several provisions at the U.S. Department of Education and elsewhere that may directly benefit minority students.
Under one provision, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings will create outreach, internship and other experiential learning programs for at-risk students. Spellings is to undertake the initiative in cooperation with historically Black colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, tribal colleges, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian institutions.
The prime targets for the program are K-12 minority students with the goal of encouraging more to pursue careers in the STEM professions. The program would receive initial funding of $7.5 million a year.
The bill also would authorize summer and after-school programs to attract females and minorities toward STEM careers. A separate provision would bring teachers from high-poverty schools to colleges and universities for research seminars and instructional activities they could bring back to their students.
Other provisions allot $22 billion in long-term funding for the National Science Foundation, much of it for more scholarships and STEM-related initiatives.
“We have allowed ourselves to get behind, we are investing less than almost any other developed country, and we must step up to the plate now,” says U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Tex., a Congressional Black Caucus member. “The time has come.”
