Is there room for 鈥淪TEM鈥� on the stump?
That ubiquitous acronym鈥攕hort for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education鈥攈as become a major topic in recent years among federal lawmakers, who argue that improving student skills in those subjects is vital to future American prosperity.
Now, STEM is the subject of a bill sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.
His proposal and a companion bill in the House, sponsored by Rep. Michael M. Honda, D-Calif., have Republican backers. The measure aims to 鈥済ive students the resources and curriculum they need鈥� to prosper in the future economy, Mr. Obama said in a May 21 statement.
The federal government currently spends an estimated $3 billion across several agencies on STEM education, but those efforts, Rep. Honda said in a statement, are neither 鈥渃oordinated, nor coherent, nor cooperative.鈥� The legislation would create a national 鈥渞esearch repository鈥� to highlight strong federal STEM education programs.
The bills would also establish a new office and an assistant secretary for STEM education in the Department of Education, and create a multistate consortium to develop common STEM content standards.
鈥淚f you ask anybody, is there a clear direction related to all these activities related to STEM, I don鈥檛 think anybody has a handle on it,鈥� Rep. Honda, a former high school science teacher, said in an interview. (鈥淔ew Federal Math and Science Programs Deemed Effective,鈥� May 16, 2007.)
While he hoped his bill would be judged on its merits, Rep. Honda said he didn鈥檛 mind the reflected light cast on it by having Sen. Obama on board.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 hurt,鈥� he said.
At a campaign stop last week at the Expeditionary School of the Arts in Thornton, Colo., Sen. Obama didn鈥檛 mention his STEM bill, but he cited competitiveness concerns about U.S. high schools.
鈥淎lready, China is graduating eight times as many engineers as we are,鈥� the senator said at the May 28 event, according to a transcript. 鈥淏y 12th grade, our children score lower on math and science tests than most other kids in the world. And we now have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation in the world.鈥�
