The kick-off session of Science Generation - A National Imperative, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City featured a panel of prominent science/education advocates but it was Newt Gingrich who got the crowd of 400+ really fired up.

The former Speaker of the House called not for a doubling of the NSF budget but a tripling of it. He said excuses that we can’t afford to do this in a $3 trillion budget are “baloney.”

He said that if we don’t make the investments in science and education, our kids will inherit a country that is “weaker, poorer, and less safe” than the one we grew up in.

Newt also proposed opening teaching to part-timers with backgrounds in science and math, without requiring them to go through teacher certification.

Posting contributed by:
M. Lee Allison
State Geologist & Director
Arizona Geological Survey
416 W. Congress, #100
Tucson AZ 85701
520-770-3500, fax x3505
www.azgs.az.gov