Protecting America's Lunch

Mar 22, 04:57 AM

Current Headlines: Last month a blue ribbon commission in Ohio issued a report laying out the case for improving math and science education.

Notable among its recommendations: a public campaign to emphasize the importance of science, technology, engineering and math skills (or STEM, in the vernacular popular these days among policy wonks) in today's global economy.

Comes now a similar commission in Kentucky, with a report on the same subject.

The situation in the Bluegrass State is dire, the report's authors wrote. Kentucky ranks 49th in the U.S. for the number of bachelor's degrees in science and engineering, they said, and 48th when such diplomas are measured as a share of all degrees conferred. The report -- issued Tuesday by the Council on Postsecondary Education's Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Task Force -- also said Kentucky ranks 47th in the number of scientists and engineers, 45in in the number of patents issued and 42nd in the number of high tech jobs.

As in Ohio, the first recommendation from this commission was a public awareness campaign to emphasize to students and their parents the importance of these fields.

Skeptics might argue that students will get more serious about studying math, science and engineering when corporations get more serious about paying for such skills here instead of shipping engineering jobs to India, China and other low-wage venues. But that's a corrosive attitude. For the United States to keep the market share it has in high-tech fields and to have a prayer of capturing more, it must produce a workforce that has stronger skills.

To that end, the commissions in Ohio, Kentucky and many other states have been properly urging educators to do a better job of encouraging and supporting students in these fields. That job starts, of course, with the training that teachers themselves get.

But the experts say that getting more and better qualified math and science teachers isn't enough. As the authors of the Kentucky report put it, we need to "revolutionize how STEM subjects are taught, learned and assessed and implement a statewide research- based STEM curriculum that is aligned with global workforce and academic standards."

In other words, kids, the question isn't so much whether you get As and Bs on your math tests, or even whether you and your friends make your school look good on the proficiency tests -- although both would be nice. But what you really need to be worrying about is whether you are keeping up with students your age in classrooms all over the world. Because if you don't, they'll be eating your lunch. And there are some mighty hungry countries out there.

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