A growing awareness that a lack of qualified math and science students is putting California and the nation at a disadvantage has Fresno State and other campuses taking extra steps to attract and nurture young people who want to enter those fields.

These efforts draw increasing private and industry support, which has become crucial as the state reduces funding to colleges. Educators say a large part of the problem lies in the education students receive well before college.

Oussama Alkhalili directs a program at California State University, Fresno, that helps middle and high school students master math and science so they can qualify for and succeed in university engineering and math majors, but he said there is a "punch line."

"If the state doesn't fund us, we're gone."

With state funding for Fresno State constricting, Alkhalili waits for word on grants that could keep his program going, even if his worst fears about state financial support come true. Hernan Maldonado directs a companion program providing academic support for engineering students at Fresno State who are grappling with math and science demands.

"They grow up not knowing about engineering," he said. "They don't take the math they need. There definitely are not enough qualified science and math teachers out there."

Maldonado and Alkhalili direct units of the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement program, which operates through Fresno State's College of Engineering and Computer Science. They seek to overcome shortcomings in students' competence in mathematics and science, beginning in middle school.

Maldonado's unit helps 320 engineering students at Fresno State, and Alkhalili's unit serves 1,500 middle and high school students and their teachers in Fresno, Tulare and Kings counties. He hopes to add Madera County.

Associate engineering dean Walter Loscutoff has said that problems in university engineering programs begin in high school math and science classes, and even earlier.

Problems were described again this week in Fresno by Robert C. Dynes, a physicist and president of the University of California. The UC system needs to become more aggressive in preparing "real good science and math teachers" for students who eventually should go to college, Dynes said.

"There are schools with zero science and math teachers. We have to fix that in collaboration with the CSU system and community colleges."

Mathematics professor Della Duncan directs the Collaborative Academic Preparation Initiative at Fresno State. The CAPI program works with high schools to bring students to proficiency levels in English and mathematics.

Gaps in education are evident when students arrive at Fresno State, Duncan said: "It's terrible. They come in with very low proficiency in math, and it's not good in English either. They can go into engineering, but they would have to start at square one with their math. They would be looking at an eight-year program."

The initiative put learning centers at Hoover, Fresno and McLane high schools, Duncan said. Centers continue operating at Fresno and McLane, "but we ran out of money" for the other, she said.

It is common for educators in the CSU and UC systems to talk about how important math, science and engineering are for continuing American prosperity and bolstering national defense.

So it made national news this month when lawyer Joseph Cotchett and his wife, Victoria, pledged $7 million to California Polytechnic State University for the school to educate more math and science teachers. The Cotchetts directed their donation toward increasing the levels of math and science education in low-income inner-city and rural schools across the state.

"A lot of terrific kids out there don't want to teach in the inner-city or rural schools where the quality of life sucks," Joseph Cotchett said. "In California, we are approaching 50% to 60% 'minority' populations, and they are just not getting the quality education in rural or inner-city schools."

He means towns such as Mendota, said Cotchett, who lives in the Bay Area community of Hillsborough, south of San Francisco, where the median household income in the 2000 census was more than $193,000. Mendota's median income was $23,705.

Cotchett, who graduated with a degree in engineering from Cal Poly, said the economics of a community dictate the quality of education: "If Mendota were in Hillsborough city limits, they would open a $25 million school right away."

He hopes that the program he is financing at Cal Poly will influence more bright students to become teachers. Students make a financial sacrifice to become teachers, and Cotchett hopes his program at least makes it more economically feasible.

"Instead of pumping out math and science graduates to high-tech corporations, we should redirect them into schools," he said. "They may make $26,000 to $28,000 teaching but $60,000 right out of school in a private corporation. It's all about priorities."

Cal Poly's Center for Teacher Education will receive $5 million of the $7 million as a deferred gift. Cotchett is working to persuade corporations to add to the donation. The center will use the first $2 million for stipends to students working on their teaching credentials if they commit to work in underperforming school districts for at least two years. The money also will support a summer institute in training math and science teachers, offering them a stipend, room and board.

A summers-only master's program will target professional advancement for existing teachers.

Michael Mueller, in charge of state and federal programs with Mendota Unified School District, said the district "absolutely" will be interested in the Cal Poly program the Cotchetts are funding. "Teachers come here for entry-level [jobs], then move on," he said. "We are always in the market for qualified math and science teachers. I'm sure we will get some bites on this, especially if it is paid for."

At Fresno State, Maldonado said the Cal Poly approach should help Fresno-area schools if it attracts new teachers and better educates existing ones. And that should help Fresno State's engineering college attract and retain more students. "Math carries a stigma," he said. "Some high school students say it is too difficult, but that comes from the teachers. A lot of teachers are not qualified to teach math, and that passes on to the students."