Every time the results of a national exam in math or science come out, people are shocked at how poorly our kids seem to be doing -- and no wonder. Recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) examinations show that only 5 percent of 17-year-olds can do what NAEP considers graduation-level work in math, and only 9 percent have attained a level where they understand and can use relatively sophisticated concepts in science.

One of the national education goals set by the President and the nation's governors is that our students should be first in the world in math and science by the year 2000. Given what the NAEP results tell us, it does not seem likely that we will reach this goal. There is general agreement that it will be impossible without an adequate number of math and science teachers. But "State Indicators of Science and Mathematics: 1990," a report from the Council of Chief State School Officers, shows that many of our math and science students are being taught by people who are not qualified.

The report identifies two categories of math and science teachers in grades 9-12: those who spend the majority of their time teaching math or science and those who spend some of their time. Fewer than half of the people who spend some of their time teaching math majored in math, and only a little more than half (54 percent) of the people who spend some of their time teaching science majored in science. For people whose primary responsibility is teaching math or science, the percentage of majors rises, but it is still not impressive: 47 percent of math teachers and 66 percent for science teachers.

The problem is much worse in some states than in others. For example, in Louisiana, only 24 percent of the people who spend the majority of their time teaching math and 44 percent of those who spend the majority of their time teaching science have majors in the field. And nowhere does the number come close to 100 percent. Missouri is the highest: There, 86 percent of teachers who spend the majority of their time teaching science were science majors. But in most states, there's close to a 50-50 chance that a student has been taught math or science by someone who doesn't know the subject well.

Ironically, the education reforms of the 1980s exacerbated the problem. There have always been large numbers of non-majors teaching math and science. When reformers increased academic course requirements, more students took math and science instead of the soft courses they would have taken earlier. But there was no corresponding increase in qualified math and science teachers to teach the courses.

The new math and science curriculums that are being introduced will create further problems. Many of these curriculums require a much more sophisticated grasp of the subject than current programs. Non-majors will have an even tougher time teaching well, and even many teachers who have majored in math and science will need substantial help. There's no way of producing enough qualified teachers and giving them to all our students soon enough to meet the goal by the year 2000. But there are several short-term and long-term programs that would help.

If the President were serious about achieving the math and science goal, he would be pushing these programs. Instead, he is trying to put through a bill that has nothing to do with the education goals -- his voucher plan that would use $500 million of public money to subsidize the private-school tuition of many kids who are already in private schools. Why doesn't President Bush spend this money on an important national goal that we are in danger of not meeting? The money might go to:

• Create incentives to get current teachers who have minors in math or science back to school to qualify themselves fully in that subject.

• Lure early retirees from business and the military whose field is science or math into teaching. They'll need help in learning about how to teach youngsters, but they know the subject matter. Also, the fact that they've used the subject they're teaching in their former careers might bring home to students the real-world value of math and science.

• Encourage businesses that employ former teachers of math and science to lend them for semester courses requiring special expertise. This, too, would help link school learning with the real world -- and it would get some highly qualified people back into the classroom.

These are some emergency measures that could be carried out relatively quickly. To solve the problem in the long term, we could:

• Create a salary incentive for teachers in short supply, including math and science teachers. Doing this might encourage more people who are planning to become teachers to major in math or science, and it might help keep some teachers in the profession who would otherwise jump to business.

• Forgive the college loans of math and science majors who teach a certain number of years in the public schools.

U.S. students will not be first in the world in math and science by the year 2000. That doesn't mean we couldn't make significant progress toward that goal. But we won't when the President prefers putting $500 million into his divisive voucher proposal. Is his commitment to the math and science goal another "read my lips"?