Dismal numbers on Education

While this is not surprising a friend on Facebook posted a link to this article that said this:

Add to this clear evidence that the U.S. education system, that source of future scientists and innovators, has been falling behind its competitors. After leading the world for decades in 25- to 34-year-olds with university degrees, the country sank to 12th place in 2010. The World Economic Forum ranked the United States at a mediocre 52nd among 139 nations in the quality of its university math and science instruction in 2010. Nearly half of all graduate students in the sciences in the U.S. are now foreigners, most of whom will be heading home, not staying here as once would have happened. By 2025, in other words, the United States is likely to face a critical shortage of talented scientists.

These numbers are bad, scary bad. As a country the United States rose to power behind the education system, it could be argued that the G.I. Bill which allowed US servicemen to get a college education made the United States a superpower. This allowed the U.S. to improve in technology, both military and civilian, and allowed us to reach for the stars, literally. Over the last few years there has been a backlash against education and against the educated population. This can be most drastically seen during the 2008 election cycle when Sarah Palin questioned why we need to continue funding certain levels of science research. While I can understand trying to cut wasteful spending, many times science research and education can appear to be wasteful but typically the results they produce can be used throughout the economy. Science is one of the best ways to teach people to think, we do after all use the scientific method daily even if you aren't a scientist, and it allows us to learn about ourselves and our surroundings. These numbers and the right's view of science are going to continue to put us behind in science and science education and very well might lead to the demise of the U.S. as a superpower.