United States Not Even in the Top 10

The new issue of Newsweek conducted an international poll that ranked countries in a variety of areas like quality of life, healthcare and economic dynamism. But then they came to education. The United States is not in the Top 10. We are Number 12. This does not bode well for nurturing a new generation of students that can move into the high tech jobs that will maintain this country’s economic power. Finland ranked first, South Korea is second and Canada is third. Estonia was 7th. Estonia? We let Estonia beat us? But if it’s any consolation, China was not in the Top 10 either. Not yet.

But consider this. China graduated 10,000 Ph. D Engineers last year. This spring the U.S. will graduate about 8,000 Ph.D. Engineers, an estimated two-thirds of whom are not U.S. citizens.

This nation was built on new technologies that made millions of U.S. workers more productive. That’s why you learned about Whitney’s cotton gin and the McCormick reaper in elementary school.

Today, not only is the U.S. losing the battle for U.S. trained engineers, instead of staying in the U.S., our non-U.S. Ph.D. graduates increasingly judge their home countries to be a more attractive option. India’s best young minds used to insist on being sent to the U.S. but now many of them resist going to the U.S.

We’ve talked about this brain drain before on Truth For America. This country has got to do a better job improving our education system, before we lose our reputation for innovation and scientific accomplishments. We can do it, but we need a program that works. And we need it NOW.

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