3^6 ORY OF THI COMM1TTII OX SCIENC! AND TECHNOLOGY 



certain animals contained predominant emphasis on sex, pragmatic 

 attitudes about respect for lite, shocking him segments displaying gore 

 and immoral acts * * * ." Dr. Stevcr stated that the program package, 

 developed through NSF funding in prior years, was being used in 1,725 

 schools but there were no funds in the NSF budget in 1975. 



During the four days of extensive budget authorization hearings 

 which the subcommittee subsequently held during February, neither 

 the subcommittee, nor any witness, nor NSF, brought up the subject 

 ol MAC OS. When the subcommittee met for its markup session on 

 February 2". MACOS was also not mentioned, as the subcommittee- 

 spent most of its time voting for and beefing up NSF support for science 

 education in general. The subcommittee decided it was high time to 

 put its foot down on NSF's decision to stress innovations in science- 

 education, at the expense of downgrading the traditional method of 

 sustaining support for general science education. The subcommittee 

 hiked the amount for science education support from $70 million to $90 

 million, but even more important set up two categories — innovative 

 and general sustaining support (the latter including upgrading equip- 

 ment, undergraduate research participation, secondary school student 

 science projects, and science faculty fellowships). As Symington ex- 

 plained to his subcommittee: 



The witnesses almost all seemed to feel that science education ought to remain 

 at a level commensurate with the increase in basic research, so that you don't have 

 research getting way out in front and nobody coming up into the stream prepared to 

 support that level of research. 



GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION IN 1975 



The subcommittee also tackled an issue which, year after year, was 

 raised by Flowers- the ovcrconcentration of NSF research funds in 

 research-rich States like California and Massachusetts, with con- 

 sistently low results for many States in the Deep South : 



: I am hatting my head against a stone wall. I have been doing this thing 

 for 3 or 4 years, and I keep thinking maybe I might he getting somebody's attention. I 

 want to be good-natured about this thing, but I want to sec some results too. 



In 1975, Symington insisted that the subcommittee recommend strong 

 uage in the report emphasizing the need for wider geographic 

 distribution, in accordance with the terms of the amended NSF act of 

 1968, admonishing NSF "to avoid undue concentration." The com- 

 mittee views in the authorization bill stressed this point, and faulted 

 the NSF for failing to take the legislative language into account. But 

 despite reiteration of the firm congressional intent, there was very 

 little affirmative action demonstrated by NSF in carrying out the 

 intent of Congress in this respect. 



