As most of you know, last year I was asked by Speaker Gringrich and Chairman Sensenbrenner to head up the Science Committee s effort to develop a new national science and technology policy to lead us into the next century. Toward a New National Science Policy , is the vital need to fortify our system of mathematics and science education, from preschool to research universities.
Education is the cornerstone of a national resource, the intellectual capacity of our children.
We must continuously and diligently nurture future generations in order to provide them the opportunity to contribute and prosper in the technology-based world of tomorrow. Recent assessments of student performance in science and math showed that although our fourth graders did relatively well in both math and science, our 12 th grade students are far from the goals set by the Bush Administration and the 50 State Governors of being first in the world by the year 2000. We have much to be proud of in our national education system, but we ought always to be seeking to address our weaknesses and to improve our performance. In addition to the need to stimulate future curiosity and innovation in science and technology, I believe that it is not only for the sake of learning math and science fundamentals that these subjects must be taught. In today s world, these disciplines have a large and direct impact on many aspects of our lives.