FINAL BILL REPORT

HB 2413

                                  C 286 L 90

BYRepresentatives Wood, Rector, Locke, Prince, Ebersole, Dellwo, Miller, Anderson, Jacobsen, Peery, Wineberry, Day, Winsley, Brumsickle, Wolfe, P. King, Wang, Forner, Horn, Youngsman, May, Kremen and Ferguson

Including middle and junior high school students in the mathematics, engineering, and science achievement program.

House Committe on Higher Education

Rereferred House Committee on Appropriations

Senate Committee on Higher Education and Ways & Means

SYNOPSIS AS ENACTED

BACKGROUND:

A report by the Task Force on Women, Minorities, and the Handicapped in Science and Technology indicates that by the year 2010, the United States will face a shortage of 560,000 technicians in science and engineering.  Of the new people entering the labor market between 1985 and 2000, most will be women, immigrants, and minorities. Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans will constitute more than one-third of the future college-age population.  The National Science Foundation points out that if minority populations are not trained early for high-tech careers, industry and colleges will be forced to become dependent on foreign-born students and faculty.

Only two major programs are available in this state to nurture minority students talented in math and science.  The oldest is the University of Washington's Minority Engineering Program.  The other is the Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement (MESA) program for students in the ninth through twelfth grades.  In partnership with higher education institutions, school districts, businesses, and community organizations, MESA provides after-school and Saturday classes, group science projects and regular field trips to high-tech factories and university campuses.  More than 90 percent of the MESA students go on to college and two-thirds of the college bound-students pursue studies in science or engineering.

In 1989, the focus of the program was expanded to encourage minority students to enter the teaching profession in the fields of mathematics, engineering, and science.

SUMMARY:

The Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement program will expand its focus to include students in middle and junior high schools.  The program will cover students in the sixth through the twelfth grades.

VOTES ON FINAL PASSAGE:

      House 98   0

      Senate    47     0 (Senate amended)

      House             (House refused to concur)

Conference Committee

      Senate    47     0

      House 94   0

EFFECTIVE:June 7, 1990