Book review: Falling Behind? by Michael Teitelbaum
The cry in America among educationalists and corporate bosses is that the US isn't producing enough STEM - science, technology, engineering and maths - graduates to maintain its position as the world's pre-eminent technological nation.
by Michael Teitelbaum
Princeton University Press
3.5 stars
Richard James Havis
The cry in America among educationalists and corporate bosses is that the US isn't producing enough STEM - science, technology, engineering and maths - graduates to maintain its position as the world's pre-eminent technological nation. But that just isn't so, this objective and well-researched book points out. There may be fewer graduates than in some recent periods, but the US produces enough qualified scientists to meet its needs, writes Michael Teitelbaum, a senior research associate at the Harvard Law School.
Although America is slowly losing its dominance in such areas, that is more to do with other countries catching up than the US falling back.
Teitelbaum's research poses a bust-and-boom cycle to science students that is driven by political interests. Science jobs in the US have often been the result of the government's military concerns, he notes. For instance, president Ronald Reagan's effort to expand the military saw government money poured into science and technology research. That led to jobs being created, so more students took science degrees to fill them.
At the end of the Reagan era, less money was allocated to such ventures and science graduates couldn't find work. So the new crop of potential science students became disillusioned, and decided to study other subjects instead.
Teitelbaum argues that, at the moment, there are enough graduates to fill the research posts and jobs available. So why, then, all the fuss about a "shortage"?