The Science Education Myth

xzvf writes "BusinessWeek says that you should not listen to the conventional wisdom. According to a new report, US schools are turning out more capable science and engineering grads than the job market can support. 'The authors of the report, the Urban Institute's Hal Salzman and Georgetown University professor Lindsay Lowell, show that math, science, and reading test scores at the primary and secondary level have increased over the past two decades, and U.S. students are now close to the top of international rankings. Perhaps just as surprising, the report finds that our education system actually produces more science and engineering graduates than the market demands.'"

Comments

freak?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm kinda a freak because I went to school and just studied what interested me without regard to how I was going to apply it to getting a job

A lot of people do that. It is actually quite common.

I am inclined to think that this observation about having too many educated people suggests a couple of things:

1) The oft-repeated corporate line that outsourcing is needed because American talent is unavailable is pure bunk (though we all knew this already).

2) The government could use this as justification for a reduction in the amount of student loans/grants it gives out....but it won't because:

3) The economic benefit of producing too many well-educated people is clear: we wind up with a lot of workers in the market who are burdened with bankruptcy-surviving student debts, thus making them desperate enough to work low-paying jobs for which they are very overqualified, much to the delight of their employers.

Re:Supply and Demand.

[shaka999]

People really need to quantify words like "reasonable" and "lots". What many tech people consider a "reasonable" wage actually puts them in the top 10%.

Take a look at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_in_the_United_States

This shows that 42% of people earn less than 25K a year.