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Editorial and Op-ed Support Archive
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The momentum for improving U.S. STEM capabilities is building, with opinion leaders and editorial boards opining in support of reform and newsrooms writing about it across the country.
June 06, 2011 — Kingwood Observe (Opinion) — “Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison: Teachers Are Pivotal to Our Future”
One area of particular concern continues to be the lack of math and science teachers who actually majored in these fields. Today, many American middle and high school mathematics and science teachers are teaching topics that are outside their own primary fields of study. While a U.S. high school student has a 70 percent likelihood of being taught English by a teacher with a degree in English, there is only a 40 percent chance of learning chemistry from a teacher who majored in chemistry. One program that has been tremendously successful in addressing this issue is UTeach, which started in 1997 at the University of Texas at Austin.
September 04, 2011 — Alva Review-Courier (Opinion) — “Janet Barresi: ACT Scores Point to Need for More Rigor”
While, we’re level with the nation in English scores, an analysis of College Readiness Benchmark scores for math and science shows that ACT-tested students in Oklahoma were a full 10 percentage points below the national percent of ACT- tested high school graduates in math and five percentage points below the national percent in science. We must redouble our efforts to make more students capable in math and science so they will be prepared not only for college but to secure their place in the workforce of the 21st century.
October 26, 2010 — American Spectator (Opinion) — “Ryan Young and Alex Nowrasteh: The Nobel Case for Immigration”
Only 1 in 20 people on earth live in America. But Americans won 4 of 11 Nobel prizes this year. Last year, it was 8 of 9. Many of those American laureates are immigrants. Today, about 1 in 8 Americans are foreign-born, but 1 in 4 American Nobel laureates since 1901 are foreign-born. Immigrants, it seems, are chronic overachievers. America would benefit by letting more in. A third of Silicon Valley's scientists and engineers are immigrants. Forty percent of Ph.D. scientists working in the U.S. are foreign-born. They are sources of innovation, progress, and -- not to be ignored -- jobs. If our immigration laws allowed more high-skilled workers into the country, the result would be faster growth and higher employment.
January 11, 2012 — Anchorage Daily News (Opinion) — “Grant Baker, Rob Lang, and Todd Bergman: Engineering Program Growing, Needs Support”
The engineering profession is directly tied to the generation of income. For example, every construction project for new development or infrastructure depends upon engineers. It is important to the future of Alaska to keep engineering jobs in the state.
August 05, 2010 — AOL News (Opinion) — “Richard T. Herman and Robert L. Smith: The Immigration Solution to Job Growth”
The fact is, new jobs in the new economy are powered by startups -- businesses started by entrepreneurs. And much of the entrepreneurial fuel in this country comes from immigrants. According to a recent study by the Kauffman Foundation, nearly all net job growth in America from 1980 to 2005 came from companies less than 5 years old. That's an astonishing and powerful statistic.
August 09, 2010 — AOL News (Opinion) — “Richard T. Herman and Robert L. Smith: We Need More Skilled Immigrants, but Can’t Get Them”
In researching our book "Immigrant Inc.," we were astonished at the sparse number of visas set aside for people with skills needed in the New Economy. Of the 1 million green cards issued each year on average, only about 90,000, or less than 10 percent, are set aside for workers with exceptional skills or capital.
July 23, 2008 — Arizona Daily Star (Opinion) — “STEM Program Should Boost State Innovation”
On the same day Napolitano announced the STEM center, a group called Tapping America's Potential issued a report saying that the United States is falling behind in efforts to create more college graduates in the STEM fields. Tapping America's Potential, a coalition of 16 of the nation's leading business organizations, launched a project in 2005 to double the number of students attaining bachelor's degrees in STEM subject areas from 200,000 to 400,000 by 2015. That effort, however, is proving difficult. After three years, the number of STEM degrees awarded to undergraduates has only increased by 24,000, to 225,000. At that rate of growth, the 2015 goal of 400,000 seems unattainable.
March 09, 2012 — Arizona Daily Star (Opinion) — “Elliot Cheu: US Needs to Take Concrete Steps to Halt Our Slide in Math, Sciences”
Students in the 21st century face an array of difficult problems ranging from our reliance upon nonrenewable fuel sources to the demands of an ever increasing population. While education alone is not a panacea to these issues, without a strong educational background, our citizenry will be unable to tackle these problems head-on. The STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), in particular, will serve to guide us in achieving a more sustainable and prosperous future.
November 10, 2009 — Arizona Republic (Opinion) — “New High-School Sustainability Model a Crucial Endeavor”
Science Foundation Arizona's Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education Initiative is committed to being a vital bridge between business and those working to advance education in our state by enhancing relevant and effective STEM education for all Arizona students. By building strong math, science and "21st century" skills, STEM education fills the needs and desires of students to learn through integrated studies, embedded technologies, hands-on applications, exploration and real-world relevance.
December 15, 2010 — Arizona Republic (Editorial) — “Guest-worker Program Vital to U.S.”
… The H1B visa program - for professionals with highly specialized knowledge - also fails to meet the demand for labor. Promising foreign students who graduate from U.S. universities often are unable to stay in this country to work even though U.S. companies want to recruit them. Rather than hurting American workers, hiring foreign talent in this country helps keep jobs here, says Stuart Anderson of the National Foundation for American Policy. Companies that can't recruit American-trained foreigners to work in the United States may opt to hire them at offshore locations. Or the United States may simply lose these U.S.-trained professionals to other countries. Either way, fewer jobs are created in the United States and America's competitiveness slips. "We need a workforce that keeps the U.S. competitive in the 21st century," [former U.S. Rep. Jim] Kolbe says. Providing adequate temporary-worker visas at both the high and low end of the pay scale serves national security and the American economy.
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