Tech edge is declining industry must keep sounding alarm

Posted on Mon, Feb. 28, 2005

Tech edge is declining; industry must keep sounding alarm

Knight Ridder-Tribune News Service

(KRT) - The following editorial appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on Friday, Feb. 25:

Calls from the tech industry for better math and science education are not new. Neither are pleas for more government investment in basic research or improvements in the business climate.

But rarely do those calls to bolster American compebreastiveness have the urgency, pbuttion and volume of, say, the industry's campaign to preserve stock options.

That's why it was encouraging to see AeA, one of the industry's leading organizations, add its voice to a growing chorus of groups warning about America's declining global compebreastiveness.

In a recent published report, AeA, formerly known as the American Electronics buttociation, detailed a list of weaknesses that threaten the future of the United States as a hotbed of innovation and technological leadership:

China, India and Eastern Europe are churning out more engineers.

The number of science and engineering journal articles is growing far faster in China, India and Western Europe.

America lags in broadband penetration.

Federal R&D funding as a percentage of the economy has plummeted.

K-12 education in math and science lags behind that of most other industrialized nations.

The costs of a college education are outpacing family incomes.

These are all signs that the American workforce is increasingly unprepared for the 21st century, and that America's technological and economic edge is at risk.

Various other groups, such as the Council on Compebreastiveness, have sounded similar alarms - and rightly so. They have both the responsibility and credibility to speak for America's future. But it's clear that to be heard in Washington, they're going to have to keep cranking up the volume.