Education

Congress’s recent action to allow the Federal Aviation Administration to avoid furloughs of air traffic controllers is an indication that the fiscal sequester is starting to bite. Less visible, but no less real, is the harm to our economic growth that will result from drastic across-the-board sequestration cuts to agencies that support scientific research.

The raft of school shootings across the country is dramatic evidence of the need to provide a better support system for children with mental illness. As schools have focused more and more narrowly on academic performance, early warning signs of mental and behavioral health disorders have been all too frequently overlooked. The Mental Health in Schools Act of 2013 (S. 195) has placed a spotlight on children’s mental health, now at increasingly greater risk given cuts to state education budgets. These cuts threaten to further reduce already limited numbers of school counselors and other support personnel. In a time of “big data,” we cannot ignore the fact that one in five children in the United States suffers from mental illness. Over the past 20 years, suicide rates have nearly doubled among children between ages 10 and 14.

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Over the past decade, the United States has spent upwards of $100 billion on K-12 classroom technology to no discernible effect. The reason is clear: most education technology in use in K-12 classrooms is not integrated into core instruction, and thus offers limited educational value.

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Every child deserves an excellent education. Unfortunately, there are many children in this country that, because of their neighborhood or socio-economic status, do not have access to a school that will prepare them to succeed in college and a career. On a national scale, only one in 10 students from low-income families will graduate from college. Internationally, the United States fails to compete with the world’s best. According to a recent study by Pearson Education, the United States does not even crack the top 15 in educational performance amongst countries in the developed world.

As the ‘Gang of Eight’ Immigration Reform Bill was introduced on the floor of the Senate this week, much speculation has centered on what might be added and what taken away before the bill could come forward for a vote. The aspects of this bipartisan effort to make immigration policy fairer to the individual and more flexible for American businesses that rely on highly skilled foreign-born workers are, as always, controversial.

As the bill moves from the Senate to the House and is inevitably picked apart and amended, it is vital that law makers not lose sight of the unique opportunity to enact legislation that provides flexibility in meeting the needs of American industry, strengthens our ability to produce home-grown world-class scientists and provides us with a fairer, more humane immigration policy in keeping with American values.

Here we go again.

Recent news stories that Congress is once again fighting over whether to double the interest rates on many student loans is distressing and all too familiar.

As the mother of a high school senior who is applying to colleges right now, I know that it may come down to what we can afford — and how much debt she will be able to carry into her life after school.

The cost of the rates doubling—about $1,000 a year -- may not seem like a lot, but it is to those of us who struggle to make ends meet every day.

In an increasingly high-tech economy, we cannot continue to handicap students and neglect the workforce needs of our nation. And that is why it is high time the nation addresses the severe shortage of physical science teachers. Far too often, the teacher in a physics or chemistry classroom has neither the content knowledge nor the focused pedagogical education necessary to effectively teach the subject. Only 47 percent of physics and 46 percent of chemistry classrooms are taught by teachers with a degree in the subject. Physics and chemistry top the list of hardest teaching positions to fill year after year.

The volume is being turned up in the U.S. Senate as proposed immigration makes its way through congressional hearings. While a plethora of points and perspectives are being shared, one fact about the legislation is indisputable: promoting economic growth is a desirable goal of reform.

The ”Gang of Eight” had the right idea in supporting efforts to increase STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education in the United States as part of the immigration reform package they unveiled Wednesday. But it’s hard to imagine that the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act,” which raises the cap on the H1B visas that allow companies to employ foreigners in U.S. STEM-based jobs, will lead to any meaningful improvement in STEM education for U.S. students or in American workers’ ability to compete for these jobs in the future.

The recently released 2012-2013 PayScale College Salary Report confirms that careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) offer the best opportunities and most rewarding salaries for young people seeking well-paying careers. STEM careers dominated PayScale’s list of 130 top-tier salaries for entry-level through mid-career professionals – filling every slot of the top 13 rankings, and 40 of the top 50 professions on the list. Starting annual salaries ranged from $50,000 to $100,000, with mid-career STEM profession salaries ranging from $100,000 to more than $160,000 per year.