When Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke at BYU earlier this year she stated, " … our greatest national security threat just might be the disastrous state of our K-12 education system." The U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century highlights the implications for "American national security because of the decaying quality and quantity of math and science education in America."
The American Association for the Advancement of Science reports that most math and science textbooks are unacceptable, full of errors, and written by committees instead of experts. Science, technology, engineering and Math classes are many times taught by teachers who did not major in the subject, and teachers are not being taught enough, in their college education courses, of the information that our children need to learn.
Universities are having to spend too much of their limited funds to provide remedial courses to prepare their freshmen to receive a college education. That means we are paying twice for the same education. More than half of our math and science doctoral degrees are going to non-U.S. citizens, and more and more of them are returning to their native countries to compete against us. Our companies don't have enough educated people to hire.
Deborah Henrie
Bountiful