To meet the growing need for improved math and science instruction, on Feb. 8, 2006 President Bush signed into law two new student grant programs–the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (National SMART Grant) Programs.
$790 million is set aside for the 2006-07 academic year for these grants, which were created by the Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005. The grants will encourage students to take more challenging courses in high school–making success in college more likely, according to research–and to pursue college majors in high demand in the global economy, such as science, mathematics, technology, engineering and critical foreign languages.
Academic Competitiveness Grants will be available to students for their first and second academic years of college. National SMART Grants will be available to students for their third and fourth academic years of college.