Schumer will be here tomorrow
From the D&C:
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is expected to visit Rochester on Tuesday to detail his initiative to expand the number of math and science teachers in the country.
Schumer said that Rochester in particular could be a “math and science center of excellence.â€
Schumer will unveil “Math for America,†a program to recruit math and science teachers and increase the training and retention of teachers.
His legislation, according to his staff, would essentially create a “peace corps†for teachers by providing incentives for young people to teach in underserved schools.
He will be joined at the 11 a.m. announcement by local business and education leaders. The event will be held at JML Optical, 820 Linden Ave., Pittsford.
Sounds good to me.
I wonder how this would differ from the already successful program under AmeriCorps know as Teach for America. A real good friend of mine taught in Compton in LA and was rewarded by getting his Masters paid for and signed on for a 2-year commitment. I had the privilege of observing the class that he taught and I believe it made a difference in the education of those kids’ lives. I will be paying close attention to this announcement.
Sounds good, but what about other jobs for people in math and science? How about seriously boosting government funding for research instead/also?
While it’s well and good if every high-school graduate knows what a Fourier series is and what it’s good for, or why you can’t live without Adenine Tri-Phosphate, the real index of a country’s scientific prowess is in number of college grads with math and science degrees who are working in jobs related to their field of study.
Since Bush has been in office non-defense research funding has been cut ot the bone, and much of the money that remains has been diverted from basic research into applied anti-terrorism research (e.g., anthrax vaccine vs. research into how bacteria signal each other). Historically, this sort of government-funded basic research has produced huge pay-offs which makes it penny-wise, dollar-foolish to fully fund it.
Or, if you really want to improve basic education, how about fully-funding Head Start and low-income pre-natal care? Again, these are proven high pay-off programs that have languished under Bush.
The biggest problem along these lines has been taking DARPA from being a supporter of basic research to being a supporter of only applied research (along the lines that you mention). There was a great article about this that I’ll try to dig up.