HR Policy Association Adds Support to Legislation Promoting Engineering Education

Employee Relations, Jobs, Skills and Training

This week, HR Policy urged Congress to pass bipartisan legislation to promote engineering education in K-12 schools in hopes of expanding the pipeline of engineers entering the job market.  The legislation, Educating Tomorrow's Engineers Act of 2013 (S.1178/H.R. 2426), is sponsored by Congressman Paul Tonko (D-NY) in the House and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in the Senate.  The bill is designed to encourage states to increase the amount of engineering education available in K-12 and to remove barriers that prevent more engineering education from taking place.  To do this, the ETEA:

• Ensures states have the ability to integrate engineering design skills and practices into their existing science standards—without requiring states to establish a separate set of standards specifically for engineering;
• Targets a portion of current education funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for states to award grants to support professional development and instructional materials for STEM education; and
• Gives states flexibility to support engineering curricula by expanding a number of existing grant programs to include engineering education.

Though the legislation does not create any new STEM program, it does amend the Education Science Reform Act of 2002 to expand the mission and duties of the Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) beyond math and science to include all STEM subject areas.  It also directs IES to specifically support key studies and evaluations related to K-12 engineering education, including identifying best practices and promising innovations.