The United States’ future is being mortgaged by the lack of an education policy to develop the scientists and engineers who are the cornerstone of an innovative and competitive 21st-century economy.

That the United States is falling behind the world’s rising economic powers in this regard was more evident than ever during my visits to China, India and elsewhere this year. The United States once ranked third in the number of science degrees granted; today, it ranks 17th. China and India are moving rapidly to achieve global leadership in producing science, technology, engineering and math creators, inventors, researchers and scientists. China graduates at least four times as many engineers as the U.S., and India has just announced a new initiative to produce more graduates in science and technology.

Of the 2.8 million bachelor’s degrees in science and technology granted worldwide in 2003, 1.2 million were earned at Asian universities, 830,000 were earned in Europe and only 400,000 were earned in the United States. Even South Korea, with one-sixth of the U.S. population, graduates as many engineers as this nation.



Foreign talent



Even at home, the United States is increasingly reliant on foreign talent. Fifty percent of all engineering doctoral degrees awarded by U.S. engineering colleges are to foreign nationals. The proportion of those remaining in the United States after receiving their degrees increased from 49 percent in 1989 to 71 percent in 2001. Foreign-born scientists and engineers were about 23 percent of the U.S. science and engineering labor force in 2000, an increase of nearly 13 percent over 1980. These trends should give Americans pause.

Our U.S. engineering training is perceived as superb; however, can U.S. training continue to trump the spiraling numbers of engineering graduates from our global competitors?

At a recent educators’ meeting in the nation’s capital, conversation turned to whether the U.S. government should support programming for this nation’s most gifted and talented high school students. Educators overwhelmingly said that top students in secondary schools need no assistance, much to my dismay. Their reasoning is that priority must be given to those not meeting the minimal standards in science and math. The ugly secret is that our most talented students are falling between the cracks. Not one program at major governmental agencies such as NIH, NSF or NASA specifically targets the top 5 percent of students who have demonstrated academic achievement and have the greatest potential for becoming our inventors, creators and greatest scientists of this nation. In a recent international assessment of math problem-solving skills of 15-year-olds, the U.S. had the smallest number of top performers and the largest percentage of low performers compared to other participating countries. By the time students reach the 12th grade in math and science, they are flat or near the bottom or dead last against international competition, according to the U.S. Department of Education. These are the critical years for supporting students in science and math, for it is the time when they make career-determining decisions for college and university studies.

During a recent trip to China, I visited several Key High Schools which are dedicated to preparing top young scholars for science and technology careers. The Chinese government has targeted upward of $20 million to support laboratories in each of Shanghai’s 34 Key Schools, some of which make our universities envious. In a recent speech, President Hu Jintao of China said that the Chinese are placing great emphasis on encouraging their brightest students in order to further Chinese economic and military development. By explicitly connecting its education policy to its national objectives, China has taken a long-term approach to train its talent for the next century. A recent study of Chinese development in science and technology found that the country’s senior scientists and technology experts are expected to make the historical responsibility of training young people their first priority.

In November, India’s president, Dr. Abdul Kalam, announced just prior to a visiting State Department delegation of which I was a member, that India’s economic plan will explicitly support young scholars as a means of reaching its national economic policy goals. As an emerging success in the engineering subject areas, particularly information technology, India is emphasizing its IT industries to their students with Operation Knowledge, a national campaign to develop India’s push to economic growth.



Urgent steps



Three types of people exist in the world. People who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people who wonder what happened. Ours is a nation presently wondering what will happen. In order for the United States to compete globally and continue to lead in innovation, it should take the following urgent steps.

At the strategic level, the United States must establish a policy for nurturing its most talented science and technology students and integrate it with a long-term vision of U.S. economic and military development. The White House and State Department science advisers should assume this task. The next step should be a thorough assessment of the present state of all U.S. government educational programs geared to science and math. Shockingly, there are few thorough assessments across governmental agencies for the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on educational programs K-16. At this time, there is not even a record-keeping system in place where policy makers share what educational programs at U.S. agencies are sponsored for K-16 students, how many international students are in the U.S. under programs of governmental agencies, nor what happens to international scholars when they complete their study in the U.S.

Finally, some of the present millions of dollars devoted to educational programs and policy must be reprogrammed for the most gifted and talented high school students. The U.S. government should support such efforts to enrich learning experiences for the most academically achieving young scholars so that they also can maximize their potential. A system of performance measurements will help determine which least effective programs can be cancelled to provide the funds for this initiative, which will also be guided by performance metrics. At the Center for Excellence in Education, we are providing research and competition opportunities to America’s top talent, these young scholars who are key to America’s future competitive position. Admiral Rickover foresaw the need for the United States to maintain its edge. It is now time for government to provide the strategic support for this vital task.

Joann DiGennaro is president of the Center for Excellence in Education and a research affiliate at Harvard University’s Program for Information Resources Policy.