NASA to Cut Science Education Program

By Angela Forest, Daily Press, Newport News, Va.

Mar. 12–Randall Caton doesn’t really understand it.

For six years, the Christopher Newport University physics professor has participated in a learning initiative at NASA Langley Research Center that provides engaging science lessons to children and adults nationwide.

Free videos, Web exercises and teleconferencing through the NASA Center for Distance Learning help students see how science and math are used in the real world. Teachers love them. Adults appreciate them. Businesses use them for training.

The educational videos, which a local company produces, have won several Emmy awards and are shown on public broadcasting stations.

But despite the center’s acclaim, it will shoot its last video in June. The end of production means the elimination of five full-time positions, Caton said.

NASA headquarters in Washington told the staff in January that money wasn’t available to continue the center, Caton said.

“We’ve had a lot of people disappointed that these are coming to an end because they have been very valuable for teachers,” Caton said. “We feel it’s a big loss, but it’s a decision way above us.”

Educators and administrators at local colleges say they’ve seen NASA headquarters and Langley Research Center funding shrink in the past few years for programs designed to prepare more scientists and engineers, something critics say the United States is failing to do adequately.

“We’re not preparing our kids for the jobs of the future,” said Bill Thomas, director of governmental relations for Hampton University.

Last summer, Thomas wrote letters to nearly every Virginia representative in Congress asking them to preserve a program that has operated at HU for 20 years, the Langley Aerospace Research Summer Scholars Program. The program — which has trained 2,000 mostly minority and female college students from across the country in engineering and science — saw its funding from Langley get cut in half this year, Thomas said.

That means 75 students, rather than 150, will spend 10 weeks with NASA researchers this summer.

This year HU also saw NASA eliminate funding after five years for a micro-gravity journal that published faculty writings. Langley funding for a program that pairs HU faculty with NASA scientists also disappeared.

However, Thomas doubts that a $170,000 grant from NASA headquarters to the university’s Center for Atmospheric Sciences in January will be affected, because it fits with President Bush’s goals for NASA to return to outer space.

Thomas and other college officials say NASA’s efforts to return humans to the moon and send them to Mars in the next 12 years has led the agency to take money away from education.

Between 2004 and 2005, the amount of grant money Langley gave local colleges dropped nearly $5 million. NASA’s spending on education remained flat in 2005 and 2006 at $167 million. Bush’s proposed spending for the 2007 budget year, which begins in October, calls for a 5.6 percent, or $14 million, drop in funding. NASA’s overall budget is expected to increase by about 3 percent.

NASA and its centers, including Langley, have focused on space exploration for the past few years, said Jim Stofan, acting deputy assistant administrator for educational programs. He said the agency remains committed to science education. The NASA Center for Distance Learning will not close but will identify new ways of distributing its programs. He said the agency hasn’t decided on reducing center staff. The decrease in overall education spending is “part of an agency-wide focus on priorities to achieve the vision for space exploration,” he said.

In the fall, NASA will roll out a program that offers scholarships and internships for minority college students to pursue science and technology fields, Stofan said. Redirected funds within the education budget will support the program.

NASA also is among 13 federal agencies that are working on Bush’s initiative to strengthen science education in the high schools by adding at least 100,000 math and science teachers.

The number of students involved in Hampton University’s aerospace summer scholars program did not decrease because of funding, said Marny Skora, Langley spokeswoman. “It’s a result of not having enough mentors,” she said. “The mentors at NASA (Langley) have decreased.”

Budget cuts and changing priorities have led many people to retire and others to take on more job responsibilities, she said. Last year, NASA Langley cut its work force by 600 people. The center expects a $50 million drop in federal funding for 2007.

Changes to the scholars program concern Wesley Harris. The 2004 Hampton University graduate participated in the program in 2003 and says the research and networking he was exposed to helped him land his position as a systems engineer for Lockheed Martin outside of Philadelphia. It was “an opportunity that I wish future students could enjoy as much as I did,” he said.

“To see what NASA is working on and what they will work on in coming years, that was very thought provoking.” Thomas said the college will continue petitioning Congress to not only restore federal funding to the program but to double the highest amount given to date.

COLLEGE FUNDING

The amount of grant money NASA Langley gave to local colleges dropped in 2005 from 2004 (Oct. 1 through Sept. 30).

Christopher Newport University — decrease of $1.1 million (from $1.9 million in 2004)

The College of William and Mary — increase of $10,500 (from $470,000 in 2004)

Hampton University — decrease of $786,000 (from $2.4 million in 2004)

Old Dominion University — decrease of $1.8 million (from $3.7 million in 2004)

Norfolk State University — decrease of $1.3 million (from $1.6 million in 2004)

Source: NASA Langley Research Center

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