Poor Science Eduation = Poor Economy

As PZ pointed out an update to a 2005 report was issued on Thursday which shows that as our science education has gone down so has the economy. This report should help show the importance of science education but if it will happen is questionable at best.

"Our nation's outlook has worsened," concludes the report panel headed by former Lockheed Martin chief Norman Augustine. The report "paints a daunting outlook for America if it were to continue on the perilous path it has been following":

•U.S. mathematics and science K-12 education ranks 48th worldwide.

•49% of U.S. adults don't know how long it takes for the Earth to circle the sun.

•China has replaced the United States as the world's top high-technology exporter.

Although U.S. school achievement scores have stagnated, harming the economy as employers look elsewhere for competent workers, the report says that other nations have made gains.

If U.S. students matched Finland's, for example, analysis suggests the U.S. economy would grow 9%-16%.

This is worrying news but at least some think that it is overrated.

In 2007, however, an analysis led by B. Lindsay Lowell of Georgetown University found U.S. science education worries overstated. It saw three times more science and engineering college graduates than job openings each year. Other reports have found top science and engineering students migrating to better-paying jobs in finance, law and medicine, since the 1990s.

There is of course potential that the jobs just aren't being offered because the companies don't trust in the science being taught in the U.S. As far as the science individuals moving into these other industries that might just imply that these other individuals are in even worse shape education wise, but that is just speculation and I would like to see more data on that.