For the era, this program was pretty well designed. It was a result of the National Defence Education Act (NDEA) of 1958, a measure initiated by President Dwight Eisenhower when he "called for matching educational programs with national defense needs and recommended the federal government play an important part in this activity" in reaction to the launch of Sputnik I by Soviet Union (Britannica.com).

It laid the ground upon which the US space program brought first man on the Moon.

That begs the question: the involvement of Russia in last US elections is comparable (and even it had a more dramatic impact domestically) to what Sputnik launch was. Maybe we are due to a NDEA phase II.