By Della Cronin

Capitol Hill is frenetic these days. As the mid-term elections near, Congressional leadership is strategizing on which bills to vote on, which to avoid, and how to best position their party for Election Day. As a result, the advocacy community is busy reacting. For example, there have been persistent rumors that the House will be debating the PROSPER Act soon. The proposal to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, which was passed by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in December, has zero support from Democrats. NCTM does not support this bill’s plan to eliminate the Teacher Quality Partnership program, which invests in college preparation programs; nor the proposal to eliminate student loan forgiveness for certain teachers. In fact, when NCTM members visited Washington, D.C., in April, they told members of Congress that they disagreed with the bill’s proposals. Even if the partisan plan is ultimately debated on the floor of the House, the Senate is unlikely to act on higher education policy this year. This would mean that both the House and Senate will have to restart the process with the new 2019 Congress. 

May was dominated by action on FY 2019 appropriations bills.  Although the FY 2018 budget deal was only reached at the end of March, appropriators and their staff are already hard at work on FY 2019 spending issues.  As always, the spending bill for Labor, Health and Human Services and Education is the most complicated and last to move. It’s possible—and some say likely—that this bill and others will get pushed back for final action until after the elections. 

There has been movement on another spending bill of interest to the STEM education community. The House Appropriations Committee has approved the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations plan for next year. The proposal is a mixed bag. The good news? The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) funding would grow again. NSF would be funded at $8.2 billion, which is $408 million above FY 2018; of that amount, $902 million would be invested in Education and Human Resources Directorate programs.  This plan also proposes NASA funding at $21.5 billion, which is $810 million above FY 2018. The Senate is expected to unveil its CJS plan in early June. 

There has been a lot of STEM activity in the Executive Branch. The Department of Education continues to announce grant opportunities that embrace the priority on STEM and computer science as called for in the President’s September 2017 Presidential Memorandum.  So far, FY 2018 competition for the Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) program, the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) program, the Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) program, the Innovative Approaches to Literacy program, and the Pathways to STEM Apprenticeships for High School Career and Technical Education Students program have had either absolute or competitive STEM and computer science priorities. It is hoped that the community will apply for these grants in droves and help the Department reach the goal set by the White House of an annual investment in STEM and computer science of at least $200 million.  

NCTM will continue to weigh in with members of Congress during FY 2019 as the appropriations process continues. As a member of the Title IV, Part A Coalition and the STEM Education Coalition, NCTM joins with other associations to call for sufficient funding of important investments in teacher supports. In addition, the organization has been asked to review various legislative proposals regarding new investments to support classroom and prospective teachers.

What can you do to help?
Visit NCTM’s advocacy site and learn more about the PROSPER Act (H.R. 4508Enter your zip code, and find who represents you in Washington, D.C. Learn more about the committees your representatives  serve on and their positions on various issues important to math educators. Knowing who represents you is a great first step in being prepared to be an effective advocate for math education when issues important to the profession are being debated.