Tech Policy Summit blog

Virginia Takes Lead in Net Safety Education

According to The Washington Post, Virginia is taking the lead in promoting Internet safety education by incorporating online safety lessons in its public school curriculum as a part of new statewide program that will take effect in September. As the Post explains, "even though today's students have known no life without the Internet, only a couple of states have laws that recommend schools teach online safety."

Virginia is the first state to pass a law mandating such an effort at all grade levels, and child safety expert Adam Thierer of the Progress and Freedom Foundation believes it is a model that other state and local officials should follow (Illinois and Texas have passed laws as well).

One of the things that makes Virginia's program unique, beyond the fact that it's mandated, is that it's designed to integrate Internet safety into students' overall educational experience. So, rather than having a special assembly or one-off lecture, the goal is to weave the lessons into the curriculum so that students "have to think about [Internet safety] all the time."

In addition to teaching kids how to protect themselves from online predators, the article suggests that coursework will cover other topics like cyber bullying, copyright infringement and safe use of text messaging and social networking sites. There are also efforts to include parents through public service announcements and school meetings.

Bill Gates' Visit to Capitol Hill

During his testimony yesterday before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science and Technology, which celebrated its 50th anniversary, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates told lawmakers that America is "at a crossroads" and that it risks losing its competitive edge if leaders from the public and private sectors don't do a better job of working together to support education, research and workforce initiatives.

In particular, he echoed his concerns about a shortage of qualifed workers and urged Congress to increase the cap on H-1B visas so that more U.S. firms can hire foreign-born workers (the government will start accepting applications for 2009 on April 1st). He also emphasized the need to improve the educational system along with immigration policy, to expand the pool of talented scientists and engineers.

You can watch video of his remarks in the Media Vault.

Companies Creating Home-Grown Engineers?

There's an interesting article in today's Wall Street Journal about the lengths some companies are going to here in the United States to ensure that they have an ample supply of engineering talent to hire in coming years. In addition to supporting broader educational programs, some companies like Intel and Lockheed Martin have been funding classroom training and curricula in school districts where they have facilities in hopes that it will help them develop "home-grown" engineers.

In a 2007 survey of over 270,000 college freshmen, only 7.5 percent of students said they planned to major in engineering. According to the Journal, that's the lowest level since the 1970s and it's been declining for the last several years (see yesterday's post about computer science majors).

Which is one reason a nonprofit called Project Lead The Way (PLTW) that's featured in the article has been able to attract corporate donations to help supports its mission of preparing junior high and high school students to succeed in science and engineering. PLTW has been offering specialized courses in schools around the country for the last decade and, according to a 2007 report on the program's effectiveness, PLTW students are much more likely to major in engineering or technology in college than other students.

The article does acknowledge the criticism that corporate donors may be placing their own hiring priorities ahead of broader educational goals. Weigh that against the needs of cash-strapped school districts, and the opportunities programs like PLTW offer, and it begs the question: how many public schools would be offering courses in aerospace engineering or robotics without such support?

New Data on CS Majors; Start of H-1B Season

Data from the Computing Research Association (CRA) indicates that the number of undergraduates majoring in computer science at North American universities remains dramatically lower than it was at the beginning of the decade -- there has been a 49% decrease in enrollment numbers between the 2001-02 and 2006-07 academic years.

The silver lining, if there is one, is that the downward trend that followed the dot-com bust might be coming to an end. CRA's research, which focuses on departments with Ph.D programs, shows a slight uptick in the number of undergrads declaring a computer science major in the last couple of years. The organization will release more data on the number of graduate-level degrees later this year.

As Computerworld writes, data on declining enrollment numbers is "often cited as an argument for increasing the H-1B visa cap" by industry supporters like Bill Gates. The Microsoft chairman called the current H-1B program the "worst disaster" last year. And it's almost that time again: on April 1st, the U.S. government will start accepting H-1B applications for 2009. 

If last year's surge is any indication, the annual cap of 65,000 visas will be reached right away. In fact, Oracle exec Robert Hoffman, who co-chairs the industry group Compete America (strong advocates of increasing the cap on H-1B visas), told Computerworld that "the expectation is that you are going to see an even bigger flood of applications than what we saw last year." Mr. Hoffman will be among the speakers at Tech Policy Summit later this month.

Guest Commentary: Mary Arnold, SAP

The following editorial was written by Mary Arnold, Vice President for Government Relations at SAP America, and a member of IWF's board of directors.

Success in the Global Economy: An Agenda for the Future

Against the backdrop of America's election season, one question should rise to the top of the public debate: What does America need to do to succeed in the global economy? The answers offered by political candidates in the months ahead will have repercussions for decades.

The near-term economic signals are mixed. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, slower sales and higher energy and labor costs are forcing many companies to reduce spending and hiring. Tighter credit policies are making it harder for businesses and consumers to borrow. The long-term outlook is also uncertain, given the inevitable rise in global economic competition.

Read the rest of this post at our Tech Policy Central site.

Gravel's Take on Tech

TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington has released a transcript of his fifth presidential candidate interview -- this time, he spoke with the always colorful Democrat, Mike Gravel. Arrington asked the former Alaska Senator for his views on many of the same issues he discussed with the other candidates.

We've posted highlights from Sen. Gravel's interview below; you can also look back at our write-ups of Arrington's earlier talks with Gov. Mitt Romney, Sen. John McCain, Sen. John Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama.

On advancing tech's growth in international markets: "I'd be very open to immigration, both technical people and also other people and also student visas and tourists. It is appalling, we've lost about $20 billion this last year on this criteria of batting down the hatches, that we're afraid of everybody in the world."

On H1-B visas: "I am very much an advocate for them and not only that, I would leave it open-ended, I would not put a limit on them. This is just so short-sighted, here we've got a program and we want to limit intelligent people coming to our country, does it get any stupider than that?"

To read the rest of this post, please visit our Tech Policy Central site.

House Committee Passes Bill to Fight Piracy on Campuses

As we wrote about on Monday, the House Education and Labor Committee held a markup session this week to review a broad education bill called the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 (COAA) that that would require universities to do more to combat peer-to-peer copyright infringment on their campuses, or risk losing financial aid for their students. According to Ars Technica, "despite pressure from higher education groups like the American Council on Education, the copyright-related provisions were not addressed" and the bill unanimously passed the Committee yesterday.

For more, read Ars' full report, and check out our Tech Policy Central site for other tech policy news and updates.

Editorial: Education Shortage is a Myth

Improving math and science education has been a core issue for U.S. tech companies who see a need for more skilled tech workers. Indeed, education is the lynchpin of the America Competes Act that Congress approved this summer. Heavily supported by the tech industry, the competitiveness bill authorizes $33.6 billion in expenditures to bolster education and research programs over the next three years.

Which is why a recent editorial in BusinessWeek stands out. Written by Vivek Wadhwa, an executive in residence at Duke University, the op-ed piece cites research by a nonpartisan think tank called the Urban Institute that contradicts the well-established notion that the U.S. is lagging in math and science education and needs to focus on producing more engineers.

Education Outsourcing?

Esther Dyson, whose Release 0.9 blog is available at The Huffington Post, published a post yesterday called "Outsourcing Man Bites Dog" that describes a startup named TutorVista that is connecting American students with tutors in India.

The company, based in Bangalore, India, is an "education outsourcer" that offers one-on-one tutoring services via the Web using broadband and VoIP. According to Dyson, most of TutorVista's tutors are retired Indian teachers who are able to continue doing what they love while making more money than they would in an Indian school. TutorVista currently has over 3,000 subscribers and offers pro-bono services to four rural school districts here in the U.S.

Judging from initial comments on Dyson's blog, TutorVista's story has struck a chord with some readers. Whether or not it's a sign of things to come, though, it's a clear demonstration of the transformative power of Internet technology.

Follow-up Study on Immigrant Entrepreneurs

In conjunction with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, researchers from Duke University and UC Berkeley have published a follow-up report to their January 2007 study on immigrant entrepreneurs in the U.S. (see this January post for some of the key findings from that first study).

This latest research focuses on the educational backgrounds and career paths of foreign-born entrepreneurs at engineering and tech companies. The report's highlights include the following stats:

• 52.3 percent of immigrant founders initially came to the U.S. primarily for higher education; 39.8 percent entered the country because of a job opportunity; 5.5 percent relocated for family reasons; and only 1.6 percent to start a business.
• On average, these immigrant entrepreneurs lived in the U.S. for over 13 years before launching their companies.
• 96 percent of the study participants received bachelor's degrees and 74% received either master's or doctoral degrees, supporting the report's conclusion that there's a strong correlation between advanced education and entrepreneurship

The full text of the 30-page report is available here.