According to an article this past January in the New York Times, entitled Global Advances Challenge U.S. Dominance in Science the United States is lagging behind the rest of the world in the development of new S&T talents. Thanks to globalization, Americans have become reliant on �foreign-born workers to fill technical jobs� with no end in site since efforts to fill student achievement gaps early on are not working. Many students and even adult Americans remain scientifically illiterate.
However, a new report released by the RAND Corporation reads the same statistics somewhat differently, putting a positive spin on globalization. The report, U.S. Competitiveness in Science and Technology (pdf here) looked at factors such as, R&D spending, triadic patents, publications, investment in science and math education and the science and engineering workforce to determine if the US was really falling behind. What it found is that in almost every area the United States is leading the way, contributing to about 40% of R&D spending and triadic patents worldwide. Additionally, the report noted that while �U.S. investments per student in elementary and secondary education are on par with those of other industrialized nations� its investments in post-secondary education are nearly double that of other countries.
As far as the S&E workforce is concerned, RAND was not too concerned, noting that growth in this area has been steady since 1980, largely due to foreign-born workers who �have helped enable� this trend.
So globalization seems good. Increase in foreign-born workers in the United States should already indicate how the U.S. has benefited from integration into a world-wide society. RAND also speculates the US can profit from it economically as well if Americans can embrace foreign gadgets.
The U.S. should not take S&E light- heartedly, but instead continue to try and counteract “exaggerated claims of the demise or success of U.S. science and technology”, RAND adds in a final statement. The article recommends three policy strategies that United States could adapt to continue going strong into the future, including, “establishing a centrally coordinated, independent body to monitor and evaluate U.S. performance in science and technology over the long term, facilitating high-skilled immigration to allow the United States to continue to benefit from employing foreign S&E workers and increase U.S. capacity to interact with science centers abroad and capitalize on the scientific and technological advances being made elsewhere.”
