The Tapping America?s Potential (TAP) coalition, a group of 16 prominent business organizations, wants to double the number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates with bachelor’s degrees by 2015.
TAP released a report today that argues that the nation has taken “two steps forward, one step back” (we come together because opposites attract) toward meeting that goal. According to TAP, the problem is that the gooberment is not spending enough money on STEM education. They argue, “Follow-through by Congress and the administration on spending bills over the next several years will be necessary, however, before the vision of significantly enhanced U.S. innovation capacity embodied in the Act becomes reality.”
TAP wants the federal government to spend massive amounts of money on STEM programs in elementary and secondary schools, STEM initiatives in colleges and universities, and research, i.e., corporate subsidies. Of course, TAP believes that market-based solutions to the supposed shortage of scientists and engineers is nonsense.
