Minority Science Program Facing Termination?

California's budget crisis is threatening to eliminate one of the nation's best-known efforts to attract more minorities and disadvantaged students into science and engineering. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today started a statewide tour designed to build public support for his plan to trim nearly $4 billion from state spending over the next 2 years. Among the Terminator's targets, The University of California's Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement (MESA) program, which aims to better prepare students for technical studies. Since it was founded in 1970, MESA has encouraged thousands of minority students to enroll in science and engineering programs through mentoring, curriculum improvements and other techniques. Last year, the program spent $13 million to reach more than 35,000 of the state's precollege and undergraduate students, according to university statistics.