Commentary: COMPETES Act signed amid praise, skepticism
Meghan Moynihan, Contributing Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 8/15/2007 7:29:00 AM
On August 9, President Bush signed the America COMPETES Act, a measure that has garnered widespread support despite the concerns of some skeptics, including the President himself. According to a story in Education Week and a fact sheet released by the White House, the legislation, meant to keep the United States in its position at the forefront of technological advancement, will provide up to $43.3 billion for improved science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research as well as education. In addition, the Act (whose name stands for America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education and Science) aims to better prepare teachers through improved job training and will provide funding to more effectively teach low-income students in areas such as math, science, and foreign languages. In Education Week, Sean Cavanagh writes that support for the bill has been widespread: it passed in the House by a vote of 367-57 and unanimously in the Senate.In an article on iTWire, one of the bill's co-sponsors, Representative Bart Gordon states that, "Keeping America competitive will help us keep good jobs on our nation's shores and ensure our ability to compete in a global marketplace. That process begins with a high-quality educational system and follows with ideas and investments in people here at home."
On his Website, another sponsor of the legislation, Senator Lamar Alexander, echoed Gordon's words, remarking that the COMPETES Act is the "best way for our country to keep its brainpower advantage," an advantage which he believes is "the way we keep good paying jobs from going overseas."
Despite the act's popularity, there are a number of people speaking out against it. Samia Sehgal recently reported in an article on The Money Times that those who voted against the bill in the House question how, exactly, it is going to be funded. In a statement from the White House, President Bush seems to share these concerns, saying that "the bill creates over 30 new programs that are mostly duplicative or counterproductive...and also provides excessive authorization for existing programs." As a result, the President plans to request funding in his 2009 budget "for those authorizations that support the focused priorities of the ACI [American Competitiveness Initiative] but will not propose excessive or duplicative funding based on authorizations in the bill."
Other critics point to the fact that the popularity of bills such as the America COMPETES Act may mean that other subjects, like literature and the arts, have the potential to be neglected (see Rick Nelson's piece on STEM education).
Regardless, it is clear that something does need to be done. American students do not have the "edge" that many assume them to have in regards to education, and have actually fallen behind much of the developing world in subjects like math and science. The US Department of Education has posted a report showing that American 15-year olds ranked 24th out of the 29 developing nations tested in math literacy and problem solving on the 2003 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test. In addition, the Department of Education reports that only 7% of fourth and eighth-graders achieved a score of "advanced" on the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) test, compared to 41% of students from Singapore who achieved this "advanced" score.While answering questions on the White House Website, Margaret Spellings, the Secretary of Education, also revealed that although in 1970 the US produced over 50% of the world's engineers, that number is predicted to fall as low as 15% by 2010.
