In the widely popular PBS program Cosmos, Carl Sagan approximated the numbers of planets, stars and galaxies in the Universe as “billions and billions”—his famous catch phrase.  

Over the past several months, American’s have been reintroduced to the phrase “billions and billions,” but this time in the context of the economy, not astronomy.  The numbers are astronomical, and I wondered recently just what the numbers are not only in the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but in terms of current funding levels for the major contributor to science education in the Nation, the National Science Foundation (NSF).  

Here are a few questions to get you started.

A.  What is current total level of funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF)?

1. $1 billion
2. $7 billion
3. $15 billion
4. $50 billion

B. Within the NSF budget, what percentage of the total budget is for education and human resources?

1. About 4% 
2. About 9%
3. About 14%
4. About 22%

C. Of the $787 billion Economic Recovery & Reinvestment bill, NSF received how much stimulus money?

1. $1 billion
2. $3 billion
3. $10 billion
4. $15 billion

National Science Foundation

According to data on the NSF website, the total FY 2009 budget request to Congress was $6.854 Billion.  Of that amount, approximately 9%  ($790,410,000) was requested for the Directorate for Education and Human Resources. The chart shows the amounts in Education and Human Resources Funding over the past three years.  

About 9% of the total NSF budget is for Education

Note that about 226 million was for Research on Learning and Formal and Informal Settings.  Much of the research related to K-12 science and mathematics education falls in this category.  Here is the break-out in this area:

Budget for Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings

NSF and Other Science and Technologies in the Stimulus Bill

ScienceDebate2008 has kept us informed about science & technology related-funding in the stimulus bill.  There was a possibility that NSF would have been zeroed out in the bill, but in the House/Senate deliberations, funds were restored to NSF.  It turns out that NSF will received about $3 billion in Economic Recovery and Reinvestment funds for research, major equipment and facilities construction, and education and human resources.  At a broader level, about $30 billion will be invested in telecommunications (advanced broadband), National Institute of Standards and Technology, NOAA, NASA, NSF, DOE (advanced battery and low carbon power, US Geological Survey, CDC ($0), and National Institutes for Health (about 1/3 of total funds).  Please click here to see a spread sheet describing the distribution of funds in science and technology related areas. 

Educational Funding in the Stimulus Bill

Of the $787 billion in stimulus funds, the total for education is $115 billion, which is a large slice of the pie, since nearly $300 billion of the total is in tax relief.  According to reports, the US Department of Education will have about $5 billion in discretionary funds which could be used for incentives, and innovation.  

Distribution of funds for education

I’ll come back to these figures in later posts, but for now, I wanted to share some of the data with you.