Business Groups Push to Increase STEM Graduates
WASHINGTON
Describing our “scientific and technical capacity” as one that’s “beginning to atrophy even as other nations are developing their own human capital,” a coalition of 15 business organizations have urged doubling the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates by the year 2015. The groups — representing businesses of every size and sector of the economy — released an action plan entitled, “Tapping America’s Potential: The Education for Innovation Initiative.”
“The critical situation in American innovation threatens to undermine our standard of living at home and our leadership in the world. We cannot wait for another Sputnik to propel our energy forward in this area,” warns John J. Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable organization, which organized the business groups to urge action on a national agenda.
The report cites the statistical decline of the number of science and technology students now graduating from U.S. universities and colleges. It also warns that 90 percent of the world’s scientists and engineers will be living in Asia, if the federal government does not intervene to reverse U.S. science and technology enrollment trends. The report notes that the percentage of students planning to pursue engineering degrees declined by one-third between 1992 and 2002.
To view the complete recommendations in “Tapping America’s Potential: The Education for Innovation Initiative,” visit <www.businessroundtable .org/publications/>.
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