Weak STEM Education Puts America at Risk

This week, the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations issued an alarming report, U.S. Education Reform and National Security, on the connection between our comparatively weak schools and how they put America at a national security risk. The report notes that while the United States invests more in K-12 public education than many other developed countries, its students are ill-prepared to compete with their global peers. U.S. students rank 14th in reading, 25th in math, and 17th in science compared to students in other industrialized countries.

Since the dot com meltdown, technology has cooled off as a hot career for kids to pursue. But in reality, technology is still cool, and it’s a terrific career path. Schools (and guidance councilors) are failing to encourage students to pursue studies that will prepare them for the fastest-growing fields, including science, technology, engineering, and math.

While we typically think of the high-tech hacker or PhD when we think of careers in technology, students who are technically inclined have a range of options. Many can find great careers installing, maintaining and integrating new technologies such as virtualization and cloud, unified communications and mobility or developing technology solutions for small businesses. And there are other opportunities in sales, customer support, and account and IT project management. Best of all, most entry-level jobs don’t require a four-year degree, so these jobs really can be accessible to a wide range of kids.

When the economy is strong, there are typically more than 1 million rewarding, good-paying IT jobs of all stripes and colors in the market. Even in a slow recovering economy like we have today, there are more than 400,000!

We believe the solution lies in working with students to open up career paths. CompTIA is a big supporter of the Chicago Tech Academy, now in its second year of operation, where kids from some of the toughest neighborhoods of Chicago commute on average three hours a day to attend a school where they stay later, work harder and are challenged every day to be the best they can be.  CompTIA has supported ChiTech with grants, employee time, computing equipment and instructional materials.  We hope to see more schools around the country follow this example.

And we hope adults will let kids know that technology – and IT – is cool. Our future depends on it!