Have a mediocre day!
Compared to other nations, the US ranks 16th in college and 20th in high school graduation rates; 60th in proportion of college graduates in natural science and engineering; 23rd in GDP devoted to publicly-funded nondefense research. US high school students rank near last in math and science abilities.
To correct this, a US National Academies committee published "The Gathering Storm" in 2005, recommending policies for substantial change.
And impressive accomplishments have indeed been made!
A research university equal to the current endowment of MIT has been created. 200,000 students study abroad on government scholarships, mostly in science and engineering. Government investment in R & D increased 25%. A world-class nanotechnology institute has been established. $10 billion has been added to K-12 science and math education. And $3 billion has been added to the nation's research budget.
Quite a feat, isn't it. It shows what a good report can do!
BUT NONE OF THIS HAPPENED IN THE U.S., of course. These things happened in Saudi Arabia, China, the UK, India, Brazil, and Russia, respectively.
To the contrary, since the report was issued, in the US research and education funds have been cut; 2-day-per-month "unpaid holidays" have been instituted at some major federally-funded research laboratories; and $152 billion distributed to the US population in tiny sums in an "economic stimulus package" (remember that?).
And all of those things happened BEFORE the collapse of the stock market and the multi-trillion dollar give-aways to the rich and powerful, achieved by indebting future generations forever while simultaneously dumbing them down.
Most of the above information comes from an editorial in "Science" (September 19, 2008, p. 1605) written by Norman Augustine, the chair of the committee that wrote "The Gathering Storm".
Augustine ends by writing that the US is well on its way to becoming "America, the land of the free and the home of the unemployed."
And he did not know that the worst by far is yet to come.
As the local bank ad says, "Have a mediocre day!"
Jim Dator
