Obama Seeks to Make Science Cool

The greatest economic and military power, the United States of America, could lose its status as the leader in scientific discoveries, a field heavily driven by the U.S. for decades, according to President Obama. The president issued this warning at the White House on Wednesday during the start of a public-private partnership called “Educate to Innovate,” worth $250 million.

The money will be used for increasing the number and professional skills of science, technology, engineering and mathematics teachers (STEM), because “despite the importance of education in these subjects, we have to admit we are right now being outpaced by our competitors,” says Obama, according to USA Today.

To justify the funding of this project, he described the low performance level of American students in these areas, which are critical to “reaffirming and strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of scientific discovery and technological innovation.”

For example, in a 2006 PISA evaluation, 15-year-old Americans were ranked 21 out of 30 in science abilities and 25 out of 30 in math skills. According to an evaluation covering the entire USA (2009), fourth graders showed no signs of progress and eigth graders’ progress was considered modest.

Goal: 10,000 science teachers by the end of 2015

This is what happens when, in 2000, the country with the highest number of Nobel Prize winners (270 – more than the total of the next five countries) had more foreign students studying science and engineering than those born in America.

In order to attract students to the scientific field, the White House hopes to partner with Time-Warner, Discovery and Sesame Street, media outlets that would ideally help to make careers in science as enticing as possible.

Also, the disinterest of students is matched by low numbers of specialized teachers in schools and a very small percentage of women and minorities studying scientific subjects. With “Educate and Innovate,” Obama wants to prepare 10,000 STEM teachers by the year 2015 and send them to some of the poorest schools in America. To this end, deans from 75 public universities gave the president their professional commitment to expand the “UTeach” program, which offers students the opportunity to gain educational skills.

China and South Korea, rivals in science

The White House hopes that in the next decade American students’ performances will propel them from mediocrity to the top of the list, where rival states are. Obama mentioned China and South Korea as some of the “progressing countries,” qualifying as “unacceptable” the fact that “the difference between the number of teachers we have and the number of teachers we need is increasing.”

“Have no doubt: it is out future we are talking about. The countries that are better at education than us will surpass us. Continuing to lose ground in education means giving away to others our position in the world,” said Obama.