America’s Brain Drain
Crisis Losing the Global Edge William Kunz is a
self-described computer geek. A more apt description might be computer genius.
When he was just 11, Kunz started writing software programs, and by 14 he had
created his own video game. As a high school sophomore in Houston, Texas, he won
first prize in a local science fair for a data encryption (编密码) program he
wrote. In his senior year, he took top prize in an international science and
engineering fair for designing a program to analyze and sort DNA
patterns. Kunz went on to attend Carnegie Mellon, among the
nation’s highest-ranked universities in computer science. After college he
landed a job with Oracle in Silicon Valley, writing software used by companies
around the world. Kurtz looked set to become a star in his
field. Then he gave it all up. Today, three years later, Kurtz
is in his first year at Harvard Business School. He left software engineering
partly because his earning potential paled next to friends who were going into
law or business. He also worried about job security, especially as more
companies move their programming overseas to lower costs. "Every time
you’re asked to train someone in India, you think, ’Am I training my
replacement’" Ktnz says. Things are turning out very
differently for another standout in engineering, Qing-Shan Jia. A student at
Tsinghua University in Beijing, Jia shines even among his gifted cohorts(一群人) at
a school sometimes called "the MIT of China". He considered applying to Harvard
for his PhD, but decided it wasn’t worth it. His university is
investing heavily in cutting-edge research facilities, and attracts an
impressive roster of international professors. "I can get a world-class
education here and study with world-class scholars," Jia says.
These two snapshots (快照) illustrate part of a deeply disturbing picture.
In the disciplines underpinning the high-tech economy-math, science and
engineering-America is steadily losing its global edge. The depth and breadth of
the problem is clear: · Several of America’s key agencies for
scientific research and development will face a retirement crisis within the
next ten years. · Less than 6% of America’s high school seniors
plan to pursue engineering degrees, down 36% from a decade ago.
· In 2000, 56% of China’s undergraduate degrees were in the hard sciences;
in the United States, the figure was 17%. · China will likely
produce six times the number of engineers next year than America will graduate,
according to Mike Gibbons of the American Society for Engineering Education.
Japan, with half America’s population, has minted (铸造)twice as many in recent
years. "Most Americans are unaware of how much science does for
this country and what we stand to lose if we can’t keep up," says Shirley Ann
Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and chair of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science. David Baltimore, president of the
California Institute of Technology and a Nobel laureate, puts it bluntly: "We
can’t hope to keep intact our standard of living, our national security, our way
of life, if Americans aren’t competitive in science." The Crisis Americans
Created In January 2001, the Hart-Rudman Commission, tasked
with finding solutions to America’s major national security threats, concluded
that the failures of America’s math and science education and America’s system
of research "pose a greater threat...than any potential conventional
war." The roots of this failure lie in primary and secondary
education. The nation that produced most of the great technological advances of
the last century now scores poorly in international science testing. A 2003
survey of math and science literacy ranked American 15-year-olds against kids
from other industrialized nations. In math, American students came in 24th out
of 28 countries; in science, Americans were 24th out of 40 countries, tied with
Latvia. This test, in conjunction with others, indicates Americans start out
with sufficient smarts-their fourth-graders score well-but they begin to slide
by eighth grade, and sink almost to the bottom by high school.
Don’t blame school budgets. Americans shell out more than $440 billion
each year on public education, and spend more per capita than any nation save
Switzerland. The problem is that too many of their high school science and math
teachers just aren’t qualified. A survey in 2000 revealed that 38% of math
teachers and 28% of science teachers in grades 7～12 lacked a college major or
minor in their subject area. In schools with high poverty rates, the figures
jumped to 52% of math teachers and 32% of science teachers. "The highest
predictor of student performance boils down to teacher knowledge," says Gerald
Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association. To
California Congressman Buck McKeon, a member of the House Committee on Education
and the Workforce, it comes down to this: "How can you pass on a passion
to your students if you don’t know the subject" Perhaps it’s no
surprise that, according to a 2004 Indiana University survey, 18% of college
prep kids weren’t taking math their senior year of high school. "When I
compare our high schools to what I see when I’m traveling abroad, I’m terrified
for our workforce of tomorrow," Microsoft chairman Bill Gates told a summit of
state governors earlier this year. "Our high schools, even when they’re
working exactly as designed, cannot teach our kids what they need to know
today." The Bush Administration has also proposed cutting the
fiscal 2006 budget for research and development in such key federal agencies as
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Institute
of Standards and Technology, the latter of which acts as a liaison(联络) with
industry and researchers to apply new technology. "Funding cuts
are job cuts," says Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers, Republican of Michigan and a member
of the Science Committee in the House. Reduced funding has put the squeeze on
research positions, further smothering incentives(动机) for students to go into
hard science. What Americans Must Do Americans have
done it before: the Manhattan Project, the technology surge that followed
Sputnik. They’ve demonstrated that they can commit themselves to daunting goals
and achieve them. But they can’t minimize the challenges they’re
facing. Americans need out-of-the-box thinking, of the sort
suggested by experts in a report released in October called "Rising above the
Gathering Storm", a study group within the National Academy of Sciences, which
included the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine, came
up with innovative proposals. Among them are: · Four-year
scholarships for 25,000 undergraduate students who commit to degrees in math,
science or engineering, and who qualify based on a competitive national
exam; · Four-year scholarships for 10,000 college students who
commit to being math or science teachers, and who agree to teach in a public
school for five years after graduation; · Extended visas for
foreign students who earn a math or science PhD in the United States, giving
them a year after graduation to look for employment here. If they find jobs,
work permits and permanent residency status would be expedited.
Many experts are also urging that non-credentialed but knowledgeable
people with industry experience be allowed to teach. That experiment is already
underway at High Tech High in San Diego. Conceived by Gary Jacobs, whose father
founded Qualcomm, this charter school stresses a cutting-edge curriculum,
whether the classes are on biotechnology or web design. To teach these courses,
the school hires industry professionals. High Tech High also arranges
internships at robotics labs, Internet start-ups and university research
centers. In just five years, 750 kids have enrolled, three
classes have graduated and the vast majority of students have gone on to
college. One of the success stories is Jeff Jensen, class of 2005, who was a
decidedly apathetic (缺乏兴趣的) student before High Tech High. He is now a freshman
at Stanford University on a partial scholarship, planning to study chemistry or
medicine. IBM is one of the companies encouraging its workers to
teach. This past September, IBM announced a tuition-assistance plan, pledging to
pay for teacher certification as well as a leave of absence for employees who
wish to teach in public schools. The philanthropic (博爱的) arms of
corporations are also getting involved. The Siemens Foundation sponsors a yearly
math, science and technology competition, considered the Nobel Prize for high
school research and a great distiller of American talent. Honeywell spends $2
million each year on science programs geared to middle school students,
including a hip-hop touring group that teaches physical science, and a robotics
lab program that teaches kids how to design, build and program their own robot.
"We’ve found that if we don’t get kids excited about science by middle
school, it’s too late," says Michael Holland, a spokesperson for
Honeywell. As important as all these initiatives are, they
barely begin to take Americans where they need to go. Americans’ shortcomings
are vast, and time, unfortunately, is working against them. "The
whole world is miming a race," says Intel’s Howard High, "only we don’t know
it." No one knows whether or when the United States will relinquish (放弃) its
lead in that race. Or how far back in the pack they could ultimately fall. But
the first order of business is to recognize what’s at stake and get in the
game. Only a small percentage of America’s high school seniors plan to major in engineering at college.