FY 2012 STEM Education Budget Request

“Even as we find ways to cut spending, what we can’t do is cut back on investments like education that will help us create jobs and grow our economy.” - President Barack Obama

“In these tough budget times, the Obama Administration is making a clear statement that high-quality education is absolutely critical to rebuilding our economy. If we want to strengthen the American workforce, we must continue to invest in education.” - US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

There are more than 100 federal science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education programs administered by different government agencies. The Department of Education and the National Science Foundation administer much of the funding for STEM education and thus are the subject of this FYI.

Department of Education Discretionary Funding (non-Pell Grant):

The Department of Education STEM education programs are the following: The Department’s funding includes $269 million for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs. This includes $30 million for a new evidence-based math education initiative that will be jointly administered with a program at the National Science Foundation.

The Effective Teaching and Learning: Science, Technology Engineering, and Mathematics program The President has also included $80 million in the budget request for recruiting and preparing 100,000 high-quality STEM teachers over the next ten years. This program would replace the current Mathematics and Science Partnership Program and would support the transition to college- and career ready standards. This program would help states improve teaching and learning in STEM fields and would be connected to the math-science partnership program at NSF.

Support for Community Colleges The budget includes a new initiative designed to improve access to job training across the nation and provides $8 billion to the Departments of Education and Labor to support state and community college partnerships with businesses to build the skills of American workers. Many of these partnerships are in STEM areas.

Race to the Top The budget provides $850 million for this program that would enable states to implement systematic reform in the following areas: rigorous standards and assessment, using data to improve instruction and decision-making, recruiting and retaining effective teachers and principals, turning around low-performing schools, and improving state systems of early learning and care.

Investing in Innovation (i3) The budget for this program is $150 million. This program supports evidence-based approaches that improve K-12 education and close achievement gaps, decrease dropout rates, increase high school graduation rates, and improve teacher and school leader effectiveness. A portion of the i3 funds will also be used to support the development of breakthrough learning technologies through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Education.

Advanced Research Projects Agency – Education (ARPA-ED) This new program is modeled on the successful Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E). Some of the funding for this program would come from the School Improvement Grants, which receives $534 million in the President’s budget.

Career and Technical Education Program The President’s budget recommends reauthorization and reform of the CTE program which is currently set to expire in 2013. The $1.1 billion reauthorization proposal would restructure CTE to align with 21st Century job needs and would scale up career academies.

The Department of Education full budget breakdown can be found here .

National Science Foundation (NSF):

The NSF has STEM education programs in multiple of its directorates. The funding broken down by level of education is as follows:

K-12 Programs: the budget request for FY 2013 is $262.8 million which is an increase of $18.2 million or 7.4 percent over FY 2012.

Undergraduate Programs: the budget request for FY 2013 is $500.6 million which is an increase of $16.8 million or 3.5 percent over FY 2012.

Graduate and Professional Programs: the budget request for FY 2013 is $395.1 million which is an increase of $ 21.5 million or 5.7 percent over FY 2012.

Outreach and Informal Education Programs: the budget request for FY 2013 was $56.21 million which is a decrease of $14.58 million or 20.6 percent over FY 2012.

The primary division of NSF that is responsible for supporting STEM education is the:

Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) The funding request for EHR for FY 2013 is $875.6 million which is an increase of $46.6 million or 5.6 percent over FY 2012.

The divisions of EHR are:

Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings: the funding request for FY 2013 is $309.5 million which is an increase of $19.1 million or 6.6 percent over funding for FY 2012.

Division of Human Resource Development: the funding request for FY 2013 is $134.6 million which is an increase of $5.0 million or 3.9 percent over FY 2012.

Division of Graduate Education: the funding request for FY 2013 is $184.8 million which is an increase of $11.5 million or 6.7 percent over FY 2012.

Division of Undergraduate Education: the funding request for FY 2013 is $246.6 million which is an increase of $11.0 million or 4.7 percent over FY 2012.

Some STEM programs to note:

The Transforming Undergrad Education in STEM (TUES) received $61.4 million in the FY 2013 budget request which is an increase of $22.0 million or 55.8 percent over FY 2012.

The Widening Implementation and Demonstration of Evidence-based Reforms (WIDER) received $20.0 million in the FY 2013 budget request which is an increase of $12.0 million or 150.0 percent over FY 2012 levels.

The NSF full budget breakdown can be found here .