Re: FW: [Schools Matter] The Real Numbers of Engineers: Rising

[aburke5054@aol.com]

It looks like members of the National Academy who should have known 
better relied on faulty statistics about the number of Chinese 
engineers.  But so what?  The Duke report that corrected the statistics 
on the number of Chinese engineers affirmed both the need to improve 
American primary education and the need to increase enrollment in our 
engineering schools.  That's exactly what the National Academy report 
said.  But if you want to pounce on every ambiguity as an indication of 
a nefarious plot (now involving some of the nation’s top scientists and 
engineers) to take over public education, more power to you.  The rest 
of us recognize an exercise in silliness when we see one.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: Horn, James <jhorn@monmouth.edu>
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Sent: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 10:39:59 -0400
Subject: [arn-l] FW: [Schools Matter] The Real Numbers of Engineers: 
Rising Above the Gathering Lies


The Real Numbers of Engineers: Rising Above the Gathering Lies

 Last Fall when Rising Above the Gathering Storm appeared, I offered 
this skeptical appraisal 
<http://schoolsmatter.blogspot.com/2005/10/national-security-requires-cor
porate.html> of the neocons' factionalized scare document aimed at 
garnering support for federalizing R&D for American corporations. An 
appropriate use of government, Norquist might say.

 Hiding behind the stamp of approval by the National Academy of 
Science, the neocons and their duplicitous goons in the White House, we 
now find out, simply made up numbers to pump the need for more 
engineers and more scientists. Now that the real numbers are out, the 
National Academy appears contrite, if not shocked, but nobody in the 
corporate media seems to care. From Inside Higher Ed 
<http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/13/numbers> :





The Disappearing Chinese Engineers


Pop quiz: What is the significance of 600,000, 350,000, and 70,000?

 As anyone who has attended one of the many recent Congressional 
hearings on American science education or economic competitiveness 
knows, those are the numbers of engineers who graduated last year from 
institutions of higher education in China, India and the United States, 
respectively.

 The numbers 
<http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=11463>
 were included in a hugely influential report, titled "Rising Above the 
Gathering Storm," <http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11463.html> on the future 
of the American economy, which was released in October by the National 
Academies.

 The hearings - along with press releases from politicians and news 
articles, including a recent feature in Newsweek, that use the numbers 
- have combined to pound out a steady drum beat of doom and gloom for 
the future of American science and engineering.

 But the numbers, though oft repeated, are no longer embraced by the 
National Academies.

 In February, after the report had already helped push President Bush 
to announce a major plan for science education during his State of the 
Union Address, according to senior government officials, the National 
Academies changed the numbers in the report.

 Where 600,000 engineers once represented the number produced in China, 
now stand "about 350,000 engineers, computer scientists and information 
technologists with 4-year degrees," the revised report reads. Those 
350,000 are compared to a new number for the U.S.: 140,000.

 The new numbers don't seem to have gained quite as much traction. 
That's perhaps because "there's political utility in [the original] 
numbers," according to Eric Iversen, manager of outreach for the 
American Society for Engineering Education. "The Bush administration 
has signed on to the American Competitiveness Initiative," he said, 
referring to the plan announced in the State of the Union.

 The number change came in response to a report issued 
<http://memp.pratt.duke.edu/downloads/duke_outsourcing_2005.pdf> by 
researchers at Duke University. The report found that, not only were 
the numbers simply wrong, they were comparing full-fledged engineers in 
the United States to Chinese workers who are the equivalent of motor 
mechanics. . . .



 These are the same hoodlums who made up their scary lies to get the 
Iraq war they wanted. Why should we expect them to do anything 
different when it comes to the small task of defining policy for the 
future of American education?




--
 Posted by Jim Horn to Schools Matter 
<http://schoolsmatter.blogspot.com/2006/06/real-numbers-of-engineers-risi
ng-above.html> at 6/13/2006 10:14:00 AM





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