The National Math and Science Initiative is a privately funded federal program. It was founded in response to studies done in 2005 by a panel of 20 leaders in math and science, showing that all kids in the U.S. are behind everybody else in math and science. The report on those studies was made available by the National Academies Press (which reports news of the National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering as well as the National Research Council) as Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future.

Among the important findings were that 30 percent of math teachers and 60 percent of science teachers had not been trained in the subjects they were teaching, that interest in math and science decreases as the kids grow up, and that the youngest kids can improve the most. Appendix D of the study documents these data on page K12-3.

How the federal government can stimulate change is outlined in a section titled "Catalyzing Change" on page K12-7: "Launch a large-scale program of research, demonstration and evaluation in K-12 science, mathematics, and technology education;" and "help create a nongovernmental Coordinating council for Mathematics and Science Teaching to bring together groups with a stake in math and science education". Industry, of course, has a stake equal to that of the rest of us.

The National Math and Science Initiative brings corporate money into this picture. It awards grants to institutions in two ways. One is to increase the scope of the Advanced Placement programs now available to high school students. The other is a new national program called UTeach. It offers financial aid to undergraduates, compact degree plans, and early teaching experience. In California it's called CalTeach and is in operation on the Berkeley campus. It won't help retain experienced teachers; but it will help young students through college, and attract them to teaching. Later on, they'll have decided whether they can still afford it.

So yes, third-grade algebra homework is soon coming to your neighborhood --- see if you have some of your rusty old schoolbooks still around...