Many Authorized STEM Projects Fail to Get Funding

With considerable fanfare and bipartisan support, Congress in 2007 approved a bill to strengthen the nation's economic competitiveness that features a strong emphasis on bolstering education in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. And yet, many of the new education-related programs spelled out under the federal law, called the America COMPETES Act, have so far amounted to unfulfilled promises.

A program to improve math instruction in the elementary and middle grades, for instance, hasn't received a penny, nor has an initiative that would send out bonus grants to high-poverty schools that show the strongest gains in math and science. "It was a very ambitious effort," said Jodi Peterson, the National Science Teachers Association's legislative director. "The programs are on the books, ... but for the most part, [they're] not funded." Even among those programs that are receiving federal aid, the amounts are generally well below what was authorized, analysts say.