Public Education 
Public education includes three activities: (1) pre- 
college education for students who may become 
specialists in marine science, marine affairs, or re- 
lated fields; (2) general precollege, college, and 
adult education for people interested in studying 
marine topics, but not in becoming marine special- 
ists; and (3) public information programs intended 
to foster citizen awareness and aid public participa- 
tion in Government decision-making. Small, but sig- 
nificant efforts now exist in all three areas, although 
they are recent developments. 
Two general objectives appear to guide Federal 
marine public education programs and similar pro- 
grams in nonmarine areas. One of course is to help 
both educate students and inform citizens. Second, 
like other Federal education efforts, these programs 
are designed to minimize Federal involvement in the 
actual management of schools and other institutions 
that inform citizens, such as the press and political 
organizations. The aim is to reduce the risk of a 
Federally dominated “monopoly” of information or 
ideas. The tension between these two objectives has 
led to the creation of Federal public education pro- 
grams, but with strong public and Congressional 
wariness about them. 
College Preparatory Programs 
The goal of Federal assistance in college prepara- 
tion—marine and otherwise—is reflected in the 
philosophy and operation of the National Science 
Foundation (NSF). Along with summer institutes for 
college teachers and the development of new college 
curricula, NSF has long been involved in parallel 
efforts at the precollege level. However, none of the 
major precollege curriculum development projects 
has dealt with marine science. Instead, NSF has ad- 
hered to a policy of developing new materials for the 
traditional science and social science disciplines, 
such as physics, biology, and economics. NSF seems 
to feel that high school training in the basic disci- 
plines is the proper background for students, whether 
they are going into a traditional field or an inter- 
disciplinary one such as marine science. Whereas 
the Office of Sea Grant funds the development of 
general precollege marine curricula, it is NSF that 
continues to be the major Federal agency supporting 
the development of precollege science education. 
Today, three NSF programs have the major re- 
sponsibility for precollege science education. One 
is the Pre-College Materials Development, Testing, 
and Evaluation Office, part of the Division of Sci- 
ence Education Development and Research in NSF’s 
Directorate for Science Education. The fiscal year 
1977 budget for this program was $1,540,000. An- 
other is the Information Dissemination Program of 
the Directorate’s Division of Science Education Re- 
sources Improvement. Budgeted at $400,000 during 
fiscal year 1976, this program uses workshops and 
conferences for secondary school officials and teach- 
ers to inform them about new classroom materials, 
practices, and technologies. This Division also has a 
number of programs to assist undergraduate science 
education. Finally, there is a Secondary School 
Student Science Training program, funded at $2 
million in fiscal year 1977, which operates summer 
programs for high school students. Of the approxi- 
mately 150 courses held during the summer of 1977, 
six focused on marine-related topics.* 
One other marine-related precollege effort is the 
Navy’s “junior ROTC” program for high schools. 
General Marine Education 
Present Federal Policy 
The objective of assisting education—in this case, 
general marine education for precollege students, 
college students, and adults——-is reflected primarily in 
the Sea Grant program, which has long had a mis- 
sion much broader than science and science educa- 
tion per se. Several ideas underlie the notion that the 
Federal Government should help promote general 
education for nonspecialists in such fields as the 
marine area. One is the older notion that people 
should have a broad education, and not simply be 
specialists in their field of employment; this is partly 
for reasons of personal enrichment, and partly be- 
cause of a belief that the citizens of. a democracy 
should be informed about a range of matters. Also 
involved is the newer idea that marine subjects 
should be taught in the schools, partly because ma- 
rine resources are becoming more important to the 
country’s prosperity and well-being, and partly be- 
cause the associated Government programs and pol- 
icy issues are becoming more complex. 
The notion of limiting Government involvement 
in education applies here as elsewhere. As a result, 
the NSF-type concept of a Federal program to de- 
velop new curricula, sponsor special teacher training, 
or provide general lecture activities often is used as 
a model for the general marine education efforts of 
Sea Grant and others. 
<= Budget information from U.S. Congress, House, Committee 
on Appropriations, op. cit. note 29, pp. 846-847, 835-836, 816. 
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