NASA Advisory Council Recommendation 

NASA Education Budget Alignment 

2017-01-01 (STEM TF-01) 

The budget for NASA's education efforts should be aligned with the goals articulated in the 

Recommendation: 

NASA Education Implementation Plan (NEIP). Budget stability is critical to long range 

planning by NASA and grantees. Budgets across funding offices should be aligned with the 

NEIP and coordinated with the Office of Education. 

Major Reasons for the Recommendation: 

• 	 NASA education has many demands in a tight fiscal environment. 

• 	 The NEIP is simply a visionary document unless resources are allocated to its 


implementation. 


• 	 Uncertain and fluctuating budgets for NASA education lead to difficulty with planning 

NASA programs. 

• 	 Uncertainty also causes difficulties for undergraduate and graduate students, 

universities (including minority serving universities), and other grantees who rely on 

stable funding environments. The lack of stable funding is particularly disruptive for 

low-income and minority students. 

Consequences of No Action on the Recommendation: 

• 	 The gap between stakeholder expectations for NASA's role in education and what 

NASA is able to do will remain. 

• 	 There will be continued fragmentation between activities conducted by multiple NASA 

offices. 

• 	 STEM training for undergraduate and graduate students will be impacted. Minorities, 

women, and students with disabilities will be disproportionately impacted. 

NASA Response: 


NASA concurs with the recommendation of the NAC regarding NASA education budget 


alignment in general. The NEIP 2015-2017 was written to help provide guidance for 


educational activities across NASA, with the Office of Education being the organization 


providing primary leadership and coordination for the effort from 2015-2017. If a decision is 


made to change the organization structure for the education efforts in the Agency, the current 


NEIP may not be as applicable as it is with the current structure. Within NASA, a Business 


Service Assessment (BSA) was recently conducted for NASA's education and outreach, and 


decisions regarding that assessment were made at the Mission Support Council. The 


implementation of those decisions may result in a change in the organization structure related 


to education. A BSA Implementation Team has been formed, and they held their fust meeting 


in May 2017. The implementation team will be formulating an education implementation plan 


that will provide specific details on how to implement the BSA findings. This implementation 


plan will supersede the 2015-2017 NEIP. 


Enclosure 
The NAC recommendation on education budget alignment and this response will be provided 

to the BSA Implementation Team , and the team will consider it as they formulate the 

implementation plan. These BSA inputs will be due to the Mission Support Council by early 

August, and implementation will occur throughout the next fiscal year. We will also be taking 

into account budget reductions in the 2018 President's Budget Request, which eliminates the 

Office of Education in NASA but supports internships, fellowships, and outreach outside of the 

Office of Education. The results of all of the actions in work will address the intent of the 

recommendation of the NAC on education alignment across NASA. 

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