Dr. Lane points out the important fact that
federal funding for science comes out of “discretionary
funds”. This is not an entitlement;
rather Congress must be convinced that the public
will benefit from this investment of the public’s
money. There is always this pressure between
funding educational initiatives or funding
scientific research. NSF certainly feels this pressure
from all sides. The concern that NSF has in
encouraging scientists that it funds to bring the
results of their investigations to the public so
that the students of our community will want to