U.S. Undercuts National Security By Failure To Support Best & Brightest

ButAsForMe Exclusive

AS U.S. STUDENT DEBT for education approaches $1 trillion,  government support of higher education keeps dwindling and what is available is going more and more to support foreign students’ pursuit of higher education in the U.S.

The government would have you believe that this is due to a decline of early education to prepare our students to enter competitive  fields in science, engineering and  related fields.  What they fail to tell you is that many of our students are being edged out of higher education because of lack of financial support by our government and replaced by foreign born students who often lack the skills to be admitted into graduate programs, but who are nonetheless admitted since they usually come from their nation’s wealthiest families or have their home government support, and have an “in” with foreign born faculty.

It’s true that 20 years ago there was a significant gap in the early education of our children in math and the sciences. Rather than focusing on these fundamentals, education became more inclusive and rightly emphasized mainstreaming those students who because of a disability or medical condition were left behind.  At the same time “gifted” students  needs were met with special advanced classes, while the vast majority languished in classrooms more intent on self esteem, than self discipline.  The net result of all of this experimentation has been a growing decline in the number of qualified students in the “hard sciences.”  Lest you think that this was solely the result of education at the primary and secondary levels, do not forget that higher education in order to boost enrollment became more user friendly with math faculty offering courses on beatlemania, and veering away from a traditional liberal arts curriculum and specializing to meet the needs of powerful, financial groups by creating specialties in business and communications.  By tailoring the curriculum to the marketplace, we gutted our system of its’ most valuable resource:  imagination.  It’s imagination and the freedom to express ideas that has set our country apart  and has contributed to our nation’s ability to improvise and increase our wealth and influence.

However, the net result of secularizing our educational needs to meet the whims of our business entities created not only a surplus of mba’s and lawyers, but it also turned the research labs of our colleges and institutions into small foreign enclaves supported by U.S.taxpayers with tax money and grants. The few U.S. students that do make it to the graduate level are faced with being relegated to a minority status with all its’ political and ethical ramifications. In this environment, our students face an uphill battle confronting racism, sexism, and lack of financial support internally and externally on U.S. campuses.

Shocking? Yes, especially when given the rhetoric by Washington on the necessity of preparing our citizens to be globally competitive.

Shocking? Yes, and dangerous. Posing not only a threat to our economic health, but national security as more and more products including vaccines are farmed out to foreign businesses and trade secrets are readily handed over to competing foreign manufacturers for development and distribution per the contractual demands made by foreign governments. Foreign governments that can provide subsidies to their businesses thereby lowering their cost of production and undercut U.S. prices to negatively impact our economy and trade balance.

What is even more shocking is the lowering of collegiate standards to admit foreign students who often have advanced degrees from their universities that are inferior in substance and practicum to our undergraduate curriculum. Oftentimes, a foreign graduate student with an advanced degree lacking curriculum substance and quality is paid at a higher rate than a talented U.S. born student that enters a PhD. program after receiving their undergraduate bachelor’s degree and passing the GRE because of a technicality that rewards form over substance. The net result means more money is being paid by the U.S. taxpayer to bring these foreign students up to par with a tier system that supports them at a higher pay rate than our own.

Take for instance a foreign student with a DVM degree (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) from their country’s university. If they enter our universities to gain a PhD. they are paid at a higher rate because of that previous graduate degree despite, oftentimes, not being qualified to practice veterinary medicine without further coursework and testing. The sum effect is to disadvantage and further impoverish our debt ridden U.S. students.

The field is further weighted against the U.S. born student by international student recruiters. With a 32% increase in international students in just the last decade, it has given birth to a whole new industry of international student recruiters who eschew our nation’s culture,values, and ethics, solely in favor of answering the economic needs of our institutions of higher education facing budget cuts. For more information of this troubling aspect of this issue, read the following article.

ButAsForMe…

In this election year, you will hear many politicians saying how important education is to the future of our nation. However, as they continue to outsource our jobs, their lack of financial support is outsourcing our education as well. The net effect not only snatches the future from our youth, but erodes our national security and puts in jeopardy any chances of a recovery from our latest woes.