The Senate Appropriations Committee, unlike its counterpart in the House, has recommended that no funds be provided next year for elementary- and secondary-school programs of the National Science Foundation.
The committee provided $15 million for science-education programs, but all of the funds would be spent for ongoing graduate fellowship programs. That amount represents the budget request made by the Reagan Administration last February.
The House Appropriations Committee had recommended spending $40 million for science education, with part of the additional $25 million to be spent on training science teachers for elementary and secondary schools and on encouraging minority students to enter the scientific professions.
The bills are scheduled to be debated by the full House and Senate, respectively, when the Congress returns from its Labor Day recess next week.
Congress has completed work on a measure that would prevent federal student-aid payments from being made to men who fail to register for the draft.
The measure, an amendment to this year’s Department of Defense authorization bill, would require all men eligible for the draft to certify that they have registered when they apply for student aid. The Secretary of Education and the Selective Service System would also be required to work out a specific means of verifying students’ certification.
House and Senate aides said last week that “formal papers on the bill must be put together” before it is sent to President Reagan, who has indicated that he will approve it.
