I share the well-founded concern of many Members of Congress that if we don't act to address the deficit, we will be leaving our children and grandchildren with a growing debt that they will spend their lifetimes trying to pay down. However, I am dumbfounded that we are considering cutting the very investments that will reduce our debt over the long run, ensure that there are well-paying jobs for future generations, and help our young people develop the skills that they need to get those jobs. I am of course referring to federal investments in science and technology.
As a Member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and now as Ranking Member, I have had the privilege of hearing countless witnesses from industry, academia, and government over the past several years testify that investments in research and development (R&D) are essential to keeping America competitive in a challenging international marketplace. In fact, according to a paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, changes in technology are the only source of permanent increases in productivity.
The America COMPETES Act, which was based on recommendations in the National Academies' report Rising Above the Gathering Storm, aimed to bolster our national economic competitiveness by increasing our investments in basic research, conducting high-risk, high-reward energy technology development, and improving science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. It garnered broad support across a broad spectrum of stakeholders, ranging from business organizations like the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers to professional societies like the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the American Chemical Society (ACS).
It should be noted that the federal government is the primary source of funding for basic research conducted in the United States, providing nearly 60 percent of funding. Basic research provides the essential foundation for technology development and innovation.
Basic research into the laser, once dubbed "a solution looking for a problem," led to fiber optic communications, bar codes, and DVD players among countless other technologies.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin were receiving funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) when they developed a prototype internet search engine, which depended on their innovative PageRank Method. PageRank is still used in their search engine service, known today as Google. Today, Google has over 23,000 employees and is worth over $150 billion.
To create the jobs of the future in the U.S., we also need to ensure that the U.S. leads in developing transformational technologies. One of the approaches taken in the America COMPETES legislation was the establishment of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E). ARPA-E brings together the best and the brightest from the private sector, academia, and the national labs to advance energy technologies. It's modeled after the highly successful and highly innovative DARPA at the Department of Defense, which brought us "game-changing" breakthroughs like stealth technology, GPS, and the Internet.
Finally, STEM education is critical to our students' future and to our nation's economic competitiveness, yet according to the Program for International Student Assessment, the U.S. currently ranks 17th in science and 25th in math out of 34 countries. Though our best STEM students have no trouble competing with their international peers, on average, our K-12 students continue to lag far behind their international peers in math and science aptitude. Earlier this year, the National Assessment Governing Board released the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) science scores. The assessment found that less than half of our nation's students are demonstrating solid academic performance and proficiency in science. Equally troubling are the significant achievement gaps at every level between White and minority students. The NAEP reported that, on a zero to 300 scale, Black fourth-graders and eighth-graders scored an average of 36 points lower than their White counterparts and Black 12th-graders scored an average of 34 points lower than their White counterparts. Additionally, A report issued last month by the Department of Education found that the performance gap between White and Hispanic students has remained unchanged since 1990, with Hispanic students scoring about 20 points -- or two whole grade levels -- lower on the NAEP scale than their white counterparts.
While this achievement gap was never excusable, as long as our nation overall was still number one, it was easier for our leaders to let year after year pass without taking the hard steps to address it. But now, just as our nation's leadership is challenged, our demographics are shifting in profound ways. By the year 2050, minorities are predicted to represent 55 percent of the national college population.
We need to ensure that the U.S. continues to produce the world's best scientists, mathematicians, and engineers and to make sure that every student is prepared for the highly technical, high-paying jobs of the future. For example, according to 2008 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the professional information technology (IT) workforce was projected to add a little under a million new jobs between 2008 and 2018. This represents more than twice the rate of overall workforce growth over that same period.
The workforce of the future will need STEM skills to fill those jobs, and we need a STEM-educated workforce here in the United States if we are to attract and retain the companies that are the leaders in technological innovation. Indeed, many high-tech companies cite the availability of a skilled STEM workforce as the number one reason for determining where they locate their facilities.
In conclusion, we need to take a step back and refrain from making short-sighted, ill-advised cuts to our R&D investments in pursuit of illusory budgetary benefits. While we debate turning the lights off on groundbreaking research projects, shuttering world-class research facilities, stopping emerging industries in their tracks, and losing many of our best and brightest scientists from the STEM pipeline for good, our competitors in China, India, and elsewhere are surging ahead in their investments in R&D, STEM education, and emerging industries. Now is simply not the time to take the hatchet to federally funded R&D and STEM education programs.
Advanced Technology Deficit Widens in 3rd Quarter - BusinessWeek
That investment better be founded on Education.
"The Value of Education" expands on this thought:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/8411423/the_value_of_education.htm
(if you wish to read it in one page, simply click the “print” link at the beginning of the article)
Republicans cut $27 million from the $29 million budget for poison control centers (nearly 75% of issues were treated without an emergency room or other health care facility). That's despite the estimated $11 the states save in healthcare costs for every dollar it costs.
They love to scream abortion and Planned Parenthood. The CBO estimates that states save $9 dollars in healthcare costs for every dollar the fed spends on Planned Parenthood for basic medical services in poor neighborhoods.
Additional money is cut for food inspection, college aid, grants to schools, police and fire departments and clean water projects.
The Fed estimated the proposed cuts would reduce growth as much as two-tenths of a percentage point. That would translate into a couple hundred thousand jobs. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, estimated the GOP plan will reduce the number of jobs created by 700,000 by the end of next year.
So they cut money from science which creates economic growth, they cut money from energy to keep petroleum prices high, they cut poison control which keeps healthcare cost contained and the sum of the cuts is job killing.
Brilliant.
We need top-down leadership, from whatever level (local, state, federal) that focuses on our long term goals. We need to consider that some things must be sacrificed for the sake of our future, even if, much like Moses, we never get to see the Promised Land ourselves.
Encourage science education by getting actual scientists to write books about science, adapted for various ages. Make these books available to anyone who wants them, individual or school system, for just the cost of printing and mailing. Or download for free to an e-book reader.
Instead of giving students grants and loans to study any thing they want, only give them to those who are majoring in useful professions: doctors, nurses, teachers, librarians, biologists, geologists, mathematicians, engineers, computer science, etc. Don't give them to lawyers, Phys Ed. majors, Eng. Lit. majors, or other people who contribute little or nothing to society. Sorry, but if you want to spend your life studying art history pay for it yourself.
It reminds me of Townhome Associations whereas these little boards think they're a separate Government and rule. The power gets to their heads and the go overboard with it.
You're paying for nothing.
As far as local-run schools, how about the smart kid that happens to be born in a lower class community and would be left out ?
Most congressmen give grants to who they know, not what they know.
You want to make it unfair to some and this country was built on fairness and equality but you would like to see that all gone. Sounds pretty selfish to me.
This is kind of an empty slogan because it is now being used to mean "spend, spend, spend."
Investing comes from savings. There are no savings in the US either privately or publicly. Rather there is an endless amount of debt and unfunded liabilities.
Even former President Clinton has expressed grave concern about the lack of savings in this country. Long run growth is made by technology growth like you stated. But it also comes from savings, that leads to future investments. Future investments are more important than "investing (or really spending every last dime and dollar left in our credit limit) in our future."
I will agree that cutting some of these programs may be the last thing the government should cut. I can think of hundreds of billions of dollars that could be cut from the 2011 budget before these programs.
But do remember that "future investments" are much more important than "investing in the future." Investing in the future comes from hard work and saving at the individual (and perhaps government) level, not from government borrowing.
~ Milton Friedman
Asian countries are now producing large quantities of technically educated and competent scientists and engineers that are probably better technically qualified than the US engineering graduates, while the USA educational system produces Historians, Philosophers, Psychologists, Poets, MBAs, Economists, Social Scientists, Political Scientists, liberal arts graduates, and etc. that are generally unemployable. The Asian and other industrial countries produce very few of these non-technically educated students that will generally not contribute anything to the foreign trade or create wealth for that country.
Many successful entrepreneur owners of Restaurants and retail stores here in Houston are former engineers who decided that engineering was no longer financially rewarding and left the Engineering profession for more lucrative professions and businesses. My personal dentist is an ex NASA electrical engineer.
The USA must create superior engineers, medical doctors, dentists, and scientists if we want to regain the technological edge that the USA has lost and purposefully destroyed in the last few decades. This will not be easy, but it must be accomplished immediately before it is too late.
This is typical of most modern business, which could not exist without either direct government subsidy or corrupt manipulation of legislative and regulatory policy.
People of this sort should also be happy that the outright expropriation of such business as penalty for their spreading of official corruption, the action which I favor, is politically impossible.
Asia is now the primary source of the most advanced engineering and scientific talent because their public education process starts early and continues to produce a stream of highly qualified young science and engineering graduates that is quite large compared to what is produced by the US undergraduate programs. American students will generally not endure the hard work, critical thinking, and intense focus that is required for science and engineering degrees, especially since today there is such limited financial rewards and respect for that effort after graduation.
Only if our US manufactured products are technically superior can we export those products in return for their foreign payment (gold and US dollars) back to the USA. Unless we can somehow produce these products cheaper than the foreigners. Neither foreigners nor US citizens will pay any extra for the same product produced with US labor if that product is more expensive.
2. The private sector can figure this out.
Government gets out of the way Congresswoman. Please.