Needed: $50 Billion

"American science in the next generation must, quite literally, double and redouble in size and strength." So said the President's Science Advisory Committee last fall, and it sounded reasonable enough--without a price tag. Last week the National Science Foundation, which promotes U.S. basic research and science education, produced the tag. The staggering price of scientific expansion over the next decade: more than $50 billion.

N.S.F.'s top goal is that "every young person who shows the desire and the capacity to become a scientist should be ensured the opportunity to do so." The nation evidently has plenty of potential scientists. On the basis of current trends, the number of U.S. scientists and engineers should almost double by 1970 to 2,500,000. The problem is giving them "the best science education we know how to give."

Those now being trained in U.S. colleges and universities represent an annual investment of $3 billion (two-thirds paid by the Federal Government), including $900 million for basic research and $2.1 billion for science and engineering education. But to train the new generation will require almost twice as many teachers, $3.5 billion worth of new buildings, and a $5 billion yearly outlay for salaries, supplies and overhead. The grand yearly total in 1970: at least $8.2 billion.

N.S.F. called more spending for science education "everyone's responsibility," including colleges, industry and states, but it emphasized that "the proportion furnished by the Federal Government must rise. . . The Federal Government has a special responsibility for leadership."

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