Lou Dobbs: Technically, we have a problem

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Technically, we have a problem
Lou Dobbs - Sunday, October 12th, 2003

The big buzz in public education is the No Child Left Behind program. The value of the federal program is problematic because it is underfunded and most public school teachers and administrators don't embrace the program.

And, of course, there is the politically charged debate over school vouchers and whether parents should be able to choose other schools for their children when theirs fail.

These programs fail to address a very real danger: This nation will be left behind if we don't give students and teachers an incentive to focus on education in mathematics and natural science.

American students' performance in these subjects is cause for alarm. Results of the Third International Math and Science Study demonstrate that American students, when compared with their international counterparts, lag far behind. U.S. eighth-graders received lower science and math scores than their peers from 14 other nations. And, according to the 2003 ACT college-entrance exams, only about 40% of U.S. high-school seniors were qualified to take college-level algebra.

This crisis in math and science education not only threatens our position as a leading global innovator but raises concern over our national security.

Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, says we should be asking ourselves, "What has allowed the U.S. to be the global leader that it is, and what has allowed the U.S. to have the greatest defense?"

The answer, says Jackson, is technological innovation. In order to continue to innovate, we need to educate the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Massive shortfall

But a study by the Glenn Commission, a group chaired by former Sen. John Glenn and designed to study the scientific education crisis in America, found that there will be an enormous shortfall of new science and math teachers over the next decade. We don't even have enough qualified math and science teachers at the elementary or high school level now. Less than 40% of public school math teachers have an academic major in the field they are teaching.

A teacher shortage is not the only problem. U.S. corporations continue to outsource technical jobs to cheaper overseas foreign labor. Hundreds of thousands of high-paying, high-value technology jobs have been lost to foreign markets. (Neither the Commerce Department nor the Labor Department knows how many and should start tracking them now.)

Because of this trend, Americans have diminished incentives to pursue a career in math and the natural sciences. Third-quarter data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows alarmingly high unemployment rates in the scientific fields. Computer hardware engineers are experiencing 6.9% unemployment and electrical engineers are at 6.7%. By contrast, only about 1% of lawyers are unemployed.

Dr. Diana Natalicio, vice chairperson of the National Science Board, told me, "There has been a serious decline in interest among U.S. students in pursuing careers in science and engineering."

And she adds, "On the demand side for graduates, there hasn't been as much pressure because the potential of moving jobs overseas doesn't create [as much need] in the corporate world."

Bleak future

None of these trends bode well for this country's prospects in science and technology, which are the foundation of the extraordinary economic growth Americans have enjoyed for more than half a century. Unless these trends are reversed, the next half-century could be one of national decline.