Burgio Few issues evoke more passionate conversation than the education of our children. While much debate has transpired on how to address school violence, drugs, and vouchers, there is a tremendous lack of understanding and appreciation by many policy makers about the importance of strengthening scientific, mathematical, engineering, and technological concepts and skills in the precollege education curriculum. As the economy becomes increasingly more global and technologically complex, it is essential that education be strengthened to prepare today's students to be tomorrow's productive workers and citizens. In addition to creating a technologically literate citizenry, there is an urgent need to develop a technologically capable workforce that can compete in the global economy.
Employers are increasingly concerned about the lack of technically skilled workers.
In 1999, ASME established a task force to formulate a position statement for the Society on the issue. Led by Jeff Leaf, vice president for precollege education, the task force met with numerous stakeholders and a variety of policy makers, and developed a number of recommendations to improve educational performance. The resulting statement was recently adopted by the Board of Governors as a general position paper. Recruiting, training, and retaining qualified teachers to meet demand. Fostering partnerships among educational institutions, industry, and nonprofit organizations.