Eric Brewe, Drexel University

The Education Policy Committee (EPC) is a sub-committee of the Committee on Education (COE) of the American Physical Society (APS) charged with providing advice and suggesting actions for COE, APS Leadership, and the APS Office of Government Affairs on matters of education policy. The membership includes the Current Chair of COE, representatives appointed by Forum on Education, the Topical Group on Physics Education Research and three by Committee on Education. In addition, ex-Officio members include APS staff from Education and Diversity and Office of Government Affairs, and advisors from the Panel on Public Affairs. The chair of the EPC also sits on the Physics Policy Committee as an ex-officio member.

Three policy priorities guide the work of the committee, and are updated annually. Coming into 2017, the priorities included:

• Ensure all high school students have access to a year of high quality physics.
• Promote widespread use of evidence-based education practices throughout the undergraduate physics curriculum.
• Increase the participation in physics in the broadest possible ways.

The work of the EPC in 2017 was wide ranging and collaborative with APS’s Office of Government Affairs (OGA, formerly Office of Public Affairs). It has been a challenging year, as the current administration has failed to fill posts that have been influential in science and science education policy in previous administrations. The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), an office previously led by physicists with a deep interest in education, is currently operating without a Director and with a much smaller staff than previously. Other offices, including those in the Department of Energy, have also had reduced staffing. This is important in the work of the EPC, as the OSTP has been a friendly organization and willing to work on policy issues.

As Chair of EPC, during this year I learned a great deal about the nature of advocacy work. I liken it to a gas in a container where policy advocates are like the molecules and governmental agencies are the walls of the container. Gasses exert pressure when multiple molecules collide with a wall. Each individual molecule might feel like they did not contribute to the overall pressure, but when there are enough molecules colliding the pressure increases and the walls bend a bit. Conversely, if individual molecules stop colliding with the wall, the pressure drops.

Through the EPC and OGA, we had a number of coherent efforts to collide against the wall. The two biggest efforts included budget advocacy. The first came during the drafting and voting on appropriations bills. The House Bill removed funding for Title II of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which had previously included $2.1 Billion in funds for teacher professional development. These funds had previously been accessed by PhysTEC, UTeach, Modeling Workshop Project, and the Learning Assistant project. Thus, it was a good candidate for action as it fit well with our policy priorities. OGA organized two congressional visits by 2017 APS President Laura Greene and me to members of the House and Senate who sat on their respective Appropriations Committees. We met with staffers who noted our visit, and to various degrees, sympathized with the need to provide funds for teachers. Following our visits, the Senate bill included the full $2.1 Billion for Title II. We cannot be sure that it was due to APS members crashing into the wall that the Senate reinstated funding for Title II, but this is the nature of advocacy work. The House and Senate will next conference to determine the final version of the bill, but from our conversations on the Hill, it is likely that the Senate’s version will prevail.

A second substantial effort, orchestrated by OGA, was a letter writing campaign in response to the tax bill. The House version included a potentially catastrophic tax on graduate student tuition waivers. OGA provided links to send letters to representatives and senators in partnership with the Forum on Education, Forum on Graduate Student Affairs, and Forum on Early Career Scientists. Through this initiative APS members sent over 6800 letters to Congress, and ultimately the tax bill did not include a tax on graduate student tuition waivers.

In addition to specific efforts, in the EPC ex-officio position on the Physics Policy Committee, we have the opportunity to weigh in on policy statements, board statements, and presidential statements. This year we advocated statements on UNESCO, support for ARPA-E, H1B Visas, Federal Funding for Research on Gun Violence, FY18 Budget, Racial Violence, and APS’s position on the March for Science. APS has been active on a variety of fronts, and the weight of the membership truly amplifies APS’s voice.

There are ample opportunities to engage more members of APS in education policy initiatives. If you are interested contact the Office of Government Affairs, Forum on Education, Topical Group on Physics Education Research, or members of the Education Policy Committee. Remember, the more we crash into that wall the greater the pressure we can exert.

I’d like to thank and acknowledge Greg Mack, Francis Slakey, Laura Greene, Ted Hodapp, Monica Plisch and members of the Education Policy Committee: Noah Finkelstein, Rachel Scherr, Tim Stelzer, Scott Franklin, Laura Henriques, and Michael Marder for their efforts and commitment to crashing into the education policy wall with me this year.

Eric Brewe is an Associate Professor at Drexel University and served as Education Policy Committee Chair during 2017 and 2018.

Disclaimer – The articles and opinion pieces found in this issue of the APS Forum on Education Newsletter are not peer refereed and represent solely the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of the APS.