Although I didn’t listen to Obama’s “state of the union” address, I happened upon the transcript and started flipping through it. There’s a lot of encouraging stuff about science and math education.<\/p>\n
For example, he says<\/p>\n
over the next 10 years, with so many baby boomers retiring from our classrooms, we want to prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science and technology and engineering and math<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
then he encourages young people to seriously consider teaching as a career choice. This is after pointing out that<\/p>\n
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- Developing countries, such as China, have been pushing science and math education forwards for years, and this is showing fruit already<\/li>\n
- The United States is slipping behind other developed countries in how well students know science and math<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
He also brought to the audience’s mind another time when the United States was slipping behind, and a president issued a challenge to the country to move ahead – the space race. Half a century ago, the Soviets beat America into space. The president at the time issued a challenge – “let’s beat them to the moon”. The challenge was taken up and won. Obama put it like this<\/p>\n
The science wasn\u2019t even there yet.\u00a0 NASA didn\u2019t exist.\u00a0 But after investing in better research and education, we didn\u2019t just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs. This is our generation\u2019s Sputnik moment.\u00a0 Two years ago, I said that we needed to reach a level of research and development we haven\u2019t seen since the height of the Space Race.\u00a0 And in a few weeks, I will be sending a budget to Congress that helps us meet that goal.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Admittedly, Obama is not in the same political party that now controls congress, but this sounds like good news for education, educators and the future of the United States. Apparently, the strongest emphases will aimed at biotechnology, information technology and alternatives to fossil fuels.<\/p>\n