President Obama's Plan to Win the Future Through Education

The State of the Union: President Obama's Plan to Win the Future.

Washington, DC  - In his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night (January 25th), President Obama spoke of the need to maintain America’s leadership in a rapidly changing world so that the country's economy is competitive. The emphasis in his speech was on outperforming America's global competitors – particularly the emerging economies – through science, technology and innovation, as well as education. Below is the summary of his speech in relation to his education, science and technology plans.

Education for A Successful Economic Future

As for education, President Obama proposed efforts to prepare 100,000 new teachers in science, technology, engineering, and math, which he strongly believes as the key skills for the best jobs in America. The President’s plan will expand promising and effective teacher preparation models and prepare more of the nation’s top STEM graduates for a teaching career. According to his statement, this will help restore America’s global leadership in higher education. He pledged to continue the efforts strengthening the Pell Grant, promoting more affordable student loans, and revitalizing and expanding access to America’s community colleges.

In addition, the President called on Congress to make permanent the American Opportunity Tax Credit that’s worth up to $10,000 for four years of college and has helped millions of middle class families reinvest real dollars in their children’s higher education.

The President was also pledging to work with Congress to apply a bipartisan approach to replacing No Child Left Behind. The Administration’s Blueprint for Reform calls for a re-defined federal role in education that will raise expectations for schools and students, and make room for states and school leaders to lead the way in improving results. The President’s Budget will call for bold restructuring of federal funding to focus on a new goal of college and career readiness for all students.

Another area which President Obama believed was an important factor for enhancing America's education was reforming immigration laws to stop expelling talent. The President asked Congress to work with him to reform the US immigration system in a comprehensive manner so that schools and universities stop expelling talented and responsible young people, whether they were brought to the country by their parents as children, or come from other countries to pursue college and advanced degrees. He said that as the country works to rebuild the economy, the ability to thrive depends, in part, on restoring responsibility and accountability to the American immigration system.

Although the speech was indeed a positive outlook of US government's attitude towards science and technology industry, as well as science, technology and maths education, I was somewhat disappointed that there was minimal mentioning of biotechnology and healthcare research investments. Perhaps, I am biased due to my biotechnology and medical background, but I cannot help but feel that the green technology buzz was a strong influence to President Obama's outlook. Of course, green technology is a hugely important emerging market, hence we built an entire dedicated to such. Though, if governments fall into the trap of investing heavily in individual "buzz" sectors, then they will divert their attentions away from other important scientific developments in other sectors that could equally boost economic growth and transform education.

Nonetheless, I thought this was a good overall outlook for many sci-tech entrepreneurs, businesses and research groups, and indeed for education. I personally believe that the education systems both in the UK and the USA have, somewhat, lost touch with science and technology in the recent years. I do hope that the president can push ahead with his plans and that other governments around the world can follow suit, which can further secure the global economic future with less dependence on the financial sector, which is still extremely vulnerable.