Senators Hassan and Blackburn Reintroduce Bipartisan Bill to Boost K-12 STEM Education

WASHINGTON – Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) reintroduced bipartisan legislation to modernize K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the United States. The bipartisan Mathematical and Statistical Modeling Education Act would help schools better prepare students for STEM occupations that offer high wages and opportunities for career advancement and train educators to engage students in high-quality, research-based lessons applicable to real-world scenarios.

“Setting up our children for success requires making sure that they have the education and training needed to compete in the 21^st century economy,” said Senator Hassan. “This bipartisan legislation will help prepare students for STEM careers, support our businesses by building a robust pipeline of qualified STEM workers, and strengthen our national security by allowing us to outcompete other countries. I urge my colleagues to support this important bill and will keep working to give students the resources that they need to thrive in school and in their future careers.”

“STEM education plays a vital role in ensuring America’s competitiveness in the 21st century,” said Senator Blackburn. “Our students should have access to a mathematical and statistical problem-solving curriculum that is relevant in the workplace and prepares them to apply their passion to American research, defense, and technology.” 

“We at the New Hampshire Learning Initiative strongly favor the Mathematical and Statistical Modeling Act sponsored by Senator Maggie Hassan, as it supports professional learning and technical assistance to our NH public schools and teachers in these critical foundational skills, necessary for success in many occupations in adult life.  We have found NH educators hungry for capacity building through our OGAP training, where we have had 800 participants from 45 NH schools over the last 6 years.  This bill will allow us to extend these professional learning opportunities to High School and beyond. We are excited that this bill will help teachers engage students in all the ways mathematics and data play a critical role in our lives and jobs. Teachers have shared that authentic and relevant performance learning experiences in math deepen students' understanding of critical math concepts and increases their creative, critical thinking and problem-solving skills,” said Ellen Hume-Howard, Executive Director, New Hampshire Learning Initiative.

The bipartisan Mathematical and Statistical Modeling Education Act would direct the National Science Foundation to provide competitive grants focused on modernizing mathematics in STEM education through mathematical and statistical modeling, including data-driven and computational thinking. It will also direct the National Academies to conduct a study on the same topic.

Along with the New Hampshire Learning Initiative (NHLI), the bill is supported by the American Mathematical Society, Center for Innovation in Education, NS4ed, Data Science 4 Everyone, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, INFORMS, Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications, American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges, American Statistical Association, Association for Women in Mathematics, Mathematical Association of America, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and The Learning Agency.

Senator Hassan is working to prepare students for the 21st century economy. In last year’s government funding bill, Senator Hassan doubled funding for a program that supports rural students, including college prep and career pathway programs in rural communities. In addition, the bill included the largest increase in Pell Grants in over a decade, which Senator Hassan advocated for. Following calls from Senator Hassan, the Department of Health and Human Services also announced that it was expanding Head Start Program eligibility to help more families in New Hampshire and across the country access affordable, high-quality early education services. Senator Hassan worked across the aisle to help develop and pass into law the CHIPS and Science Act, which includes critical workforce development and training provisions.

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