July 15, 2008

Drive for More Science Graduates Falls Behind Its Goals

A campaign by prominent business groups to drastically increase the number of Americans entering engineering, mathematics, the sciences, and technology-related fields is not making nearly as much progress as its leaders had hoped, according to a report released today.

In 2005 the Business Roundtable joined 15 other major business groups in calling for the number of people annually earning bachelor’s degrees in such fields to double, from 200,000 to 400,000, by 2015. Today’s report says bachelor’s-degree production in those fields has leveled out at about 225,000 a year, threatening the United States’ efforts to stay ahead of its foreign competitors.

The report blames much of the lack of progress on the federal government’s failure to spend more on science and mathematics education. Some experts on scientific fields have argued that the business groups’ warnings of worker shortages are overblown. —Peter Schmidt

Comments

1. The Business groups’ warnings are overblown. There were many students studying these fields during the 70’s and 80’s who were never able to find work in them. There aren’t more students studying science and math, because there aren’t enough jobs.

   — DMP    Jul 15, 04:21 PM    #

2. The shortage idea is promoted by business to keep salary levels low for technical personnel. If a free market, raise salaries if more workers are wanted. But what companies do is lobby for more H1-B visas at same time as they say we have shortages and try to convince more American students to major in science or engineering. Not very smart if you are trying to convince the best and brightest.

   — RC    Jul 15, 04:24 PM    #

3. I was one of those chemical engineering students who could not get a job in the early 1980’s (one of too many in my class). I was one of the chemistry teachers who could not find a job teaching chemistry in Iowa (I don’t coach). Still more education and I am having a challenge finding a “fit” (companies are looking for high school education with experience — translation, young and cheap). I guess some things don’t change. Business may find they have outsmarted themselves one day.

   — Kathy B    Jul 15, 04:43 PM    #

4. Two reasons:
   1. The Engineering & Science fields have a long history of being boom & bust with layoffs commonplace in the private sector. Why would smart people pursue such a risky career path?
   2. Recent data quoted in the Chronicle indicates only 3 in 10000 minority student high school grads pursue science or engineering. These students are the rapidly growing segment of the pool of college students. The data shows this isn’t for them.

   Let’s face it. This country is going out of the technology business too.

   — Mark    Jul 15, 04:52 PM    #

5. The problem is that Americans don’t want to pay higher salary to science and math teachers than to, say history teachers. Why would any one work so hard to major in hard sciences and math when there is not much financial gain? If we have highly qualified science/math teachers, they would generate students’ interest in those areas. So instead of raising salaries of S&M teachers, the schools have decided to import teachers, meaning we have outsourced S&M education. That’s capitalism!!!

   — Sam    Jul 15, 04:53 PM    #

6. Remember, all predictions are opinions!

   — bob parden    Jul 15, 04:58 PM    #

7. The day of reckoning is rapidly coming for businesses who outsource to cheap labor markets. Guess what … rising standards of living elsewhere are rapidly raising the cost of outsourcing and shrinking the pool of talent to tap. The shortsightedness of these folks will be what eventually brings this country to its knees. The current administration’s attempts to bankrupt us haven’t helped.

   — CW    Jul 15, 05:10 PM    #

8. If we want quality math and science students, we must have quality math and science teachers. Therefore, we should pay them their worth. The best education comes from well-qualified instructors, not the cheapest or marginally qualified. Make public school math and science teaching worth the erffort it requires to get the degrees.

   — Roger    Jul 15, 05:59 PM    #

9. “The report blames much of the lack of progress on the federal government’s failure to spend more on science and mathematics education.”: Would this “spend(ing) more” be before Uncle Sam adequately funds pensions, health insurance, veterans’ care, the Immigration Service, rebuilding bridges and roads……etc.etc.etc.

   — richard    Jul 15, 08:46 PM    #

10. Shared the article with my 4th year PHD top science school son majoring in physical chemistry. His edited reply “The report is wrong about why. We don’t need more money for education, the problem is just that if people can earn money with an xxx major, why bust your vvv for four years in college taking hard, non-grade inflated courses? There is no motivation to take the hard road. Maybe these businesses should consider paying more themselves, instead of asking the government to invest more.” He is generally mild mannered, studious and works sun up to sun down in his lab.

    — Father    Jul 15, 09:13 PM    #

11. We go through this on a predictable and regular basis. The same business folks who want more tech haven’t found a way to make tech attractive to teenagers. It’s tech, they want, too, not bench science, whereas the adolescent mind is more oriented to bench science and could be pulled in that direction if the biz big-wigs knew how to do it. We don’t need the feds to invest more in STEM pathways—we need the complainers in biz to invest more—-and invest smartly, something they have yet to do.

    — Archer    Jul 15, 11:42 PM    #

12. Business groups of all people aught to know why promotions of undergraduate science will not live up to expectations. Like in the USA there has been a decline in the quantity and quality of undergraduate science students over many years in Australia. The reasons are that career prospects are poor and the quality of the jobs if you get one are not very high either. Try borrowing money from a bank if you are a casually-employed university teacher with no job security. Hardly anyone who does face-to-face teaching in universities seems to have a real job these days. Students draw their own conclusions from talking to their demonstrators and class instructors.

    — Ray Ritchie    Jul 16, 12:48 AM    #

13. It is said by the Business groups that United States is not in the position to increase degree holders such as science, mathematics, engineering graduates etc annually.
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    — alizia    Jul 16, 02:36 AM    #

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