“To remain competitive while protecting our national security, the U.S. needs to prioritize recruiting and retaining the top STEM talent.”

Never gonna happen, and I’ll keep the reasons why real simple, in deference to the audience at hand :

For whatever reasons, girls are far outperforming boys in today’s public schools. They have been for decades, even though the sexes have equivalent IQ’s. That is why every coed college today is now majority-female, at least 60/40 and rising.

Also for whatever reasons, STEM majors/careers are simply not that attractive to female students in general. In engineering for example, the percentage of female students has never risen above 20 percent. That is why legitimate STEM scholars are hard to come by.

Additionally, almost all public and private university student bodies are now at least 25% foreign, simply because most Americans cannot afford the ridiculously inflated tuitions that foreign governments can easily pay for their hand-picked and legitimate talent.

And most importantly, almost all of these foreigners are STEM majors, are actually contracted (required) to return to their home countries after graduation, and are bringing incredibly valuable technical knowledge (often pilfered) and training back with them.

Bottom line : from kindergarten and up, America’s school system is completely dysfunctional, and completely anti-American. This is glaringly obvious, and yet everyone pretends otherwise.

Why is that?

Why is that?
I can think of a few reasons.
Because states and local governments, who are elected by voters, control the schools.
States and local governments and voters are rarely on the same page of anything.
We don't use a standard energy efficient facility design for all schools (in the same climate ranges).
Each local community/voters chooses its own design which is put out to bid.
We have a National School Lunch Program.
But only as far as nutritional value and other than USDA there are no set vendors/suppliers.
Textbooks are chosen by the schoolboards/voters in power at the time they are purchased.
The school districts then pick from a list resulting in different textbooks in different districts.
Every state does this, which means most students rarely use or even see the same textbooks.
Apparently, it is anti-American to use the same math/science textbooks in all states and schools.
The current dysfunction is merely a reflection of our dysfunctional society.

Thank you for your thoughts, and may I add a few more:

When Republicans (hopefully) win back both houses of Congress this fall, education reform must be at the top of their agenda.

School choice and vouchers should be made available to every American student at every level. With vouchers, public schools would have to improve their product or cease to exist.

The teachers' unions care only about teachers, providing employment and benefits for those individuals, with minimal thought given to the students. They vote only for pols who will jump in bed with them, which is disgustingly incestuous politics at its very worst.

Parents who have no choice but to send their kids to dysfunctional public schools need to wake up, get informed, and go on the offensive with school boards that try to silence them with threats of arrest.

Jail time would actually be a badge of courage for many parents who desperately want the schools to teach their children how to think, rather than what to think.

It is well understood that the small but loud minority (kind of like the black flies swarming me on my morning walk) of the dying GOP are attempting to kill public education. You all have the same script, spew the same garbage talking points--your goal is crystal clear. And sadly you don't seem to realize that you are actually the minority (back to the "loud" part). Those of us with sense (AKA the majority) need to get loud and consistently remind you of this--mostly at the ballot box.

Never a detail or rationale in any of your posts. Why is that, Rocky?

May I ask, are you advocating for a standardized education at the national level such as that implemented in Canada?

Your question is moot.
The Canadian school system is not nationally controlled it is provincially controlled.
I'm simply advocating for all US K-12 public schools to be interchangeable.
Same design buildings (all new schools), textbooks, lunch programs, teaching equipment.
A student from one school walking into any other like sized school in the nation, should see no difference, except the new faces in their class.

So you are advocating for a national standardized education, that's all I wanted to know. As a retired teacher I would never want to see Washington in control of children's educations.

I don't think you actually realize what you actually are.

Hahahaha...
And I suppose the first three words in your reply describes you.

"I'm simply advocating for all US K-12 public schools to be interchangeable. Same design buildings (all new schools), textbooks, lunch programs, teaching equipment."

This is the kind of statist conformity advocated by Stalin, and every other left/right political radical who has ever 'practiced' his craft.

Good for you, STP, and the rest of us be darned.

Linking STEM and national security in the same breath is hilarious. U.S. universities have been targeted by foreign nationals for years who take our best education just to return to their native countries and use it in their military, business, technology and science. And the U.S. has been allowing this for years. The FBI opens a new counter- intelligence investigation every ten hours against suspected Chinese agents, on average! We're leaving like a sieve. It was so bad that a special unit at FBI was created a few years ago to combat CCP espionage in America. And amazingly enough, President Biden recently shut it down a short time ago.

Nobody should believe anything in D.C. says about STEM in conjunction with foreign students. Adversaries have been stealing our IP for years placing our national security in peril.

America is the world's last remaining superpower (for the time being, at least.) We have enormously talented individuals and we DO NOT NEED to recruit foreigners. That's ridiculous and dangerous.

How shocking--a comment from the right-wing that is not grounded in reality!

There are not enough US students in STEM programs--period. This is a fact that's well known. There are lots of theories about why that is--feel free to dive in and do the research on your own. The US may have enormously talented individuals but we at the moment do not have enough students in STEM programs to fill the roles that are becoming vacant--particularly with the retirement of a large generation of Boomers.

You can "rah, rah USA" all you want here and clearly that's your thing but it does not address the problem at hand.

On the contrary, you lay out the case fairly-well. Why aren't there sufficient U.S. students in STEM programs? Is it because foreigners routinely pay premium tuition rates resulting in huge financial benefits for the universities?
Regardless, educating foreign students so many of them can take that education and put it to use against America is a threat to economic security and national security as years of evidence has proven.

For decades, schools have been hindering boys, and favoring girls, who are simply not attracted to STEM majors.

This retired teacher agrees.

Hindering boys and favoring girls and girls are not attracted to STEM majors.
You must be from my "college days" generation one I hope we never go back too.
Back in those days three of my best friends were working on electrical and computer engineering degrees. One, a female who was constantly dissuaded for going into a "mans" field. She was badgered on daily basis by many of the "men" in her class. She was the first to graduate and with top honors. Thankfully it is no longer the "dark ages".
I have many family members and friends (and their children) who are current teachers in this state and others. I'm also aware of many families, friends and co-workers' children who are male and female STEM majors or graduates.

Walk around the UMaine Orono campus, look at the very obvious disparities of numbers of males compared to females on campus, with the exception of Maine Maritme Academy, all colleges in Maine are like this now, unlike in 1972.

Facts Matter, Smeg :

Public education is encouraging feminine behavior for both genders. Statistically, there are more male geniuses than female geniuses, but the bottom of the academic barrel is filled with boys. Schools across the country are reporting that their boys are withdrawing from school life and the girls are taking over. Dr. Michael Thompson, child psychologist and author of Raising Cain says, "Girls outperform boys in elementary school, middle school, high school, and college, and graduate school," Since 2008 women have earned the majority of bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. If the current trend continues, the last male to receive a bachelor's degree will do so in 2068! Women are outperforming boys academically because schools are set up for girls.

Girls have been outperforming boys in education since I attended decades ago.
As far as "genius" goes, Donald Trump claims to be one.
If so, I'm guessing the genius stats might be a tad skewed.
The US prison population is 94% men and 6% women.
That alone tends to make me believe females are generally much smarter than men.
We males have a tendency to think with our "smaller head" far too often.
I'll be long dead by 2068, too bad, as women will have the world running right by then and I would like to see it.

I agree with much of what you say, and I admittedly much prefer the company of women to that of men. My two golf buddies are Lian ( 81 ), and Michelle (my age, 71), and they kick my b*tt every day (I do give them too many strokes). The guys are just too boring, too competitive, and will cheat to win something they do not deserve.

But let's get back to the POINT, and it isn't TRUMP. Are you disagreeing with the renowned Dr. Michael Thompson because he is not saying what YOU want to believe?

Come on, you can admit it and still save face.

Not at all, as it is observably true the majority of women do outperform men in all schooling and work for that matter but as I previously stated that has been happening for decades.
I also agree that boys/men are withdrawing from school life (excluding sports).
But that has be occurring for decades as most boys/ men dislike or hate being in a classroom. Mainly because we think we know everything already.
In my years on the planet, I've found most women to be smarter and more civil than men.
And in my employment history the women managers I dealt with were far more open to new ideas than the majority of male managers who had only one way to do anything which was always "their way". While making snide backroom remarks about the women they worked with. Granted, my personal observance of that has greatly influenced my opinion on the male versus female intelligence scale.

Dr. Michael Thompson : "Women are outperforming boys academically because schools are set up for girls."

If this is true (debatable), it is patently unfair, and I think you would agree.

I don't agree because I don't believe it to be true.
If you can provide me with some independent studies that show the same conclusion, then it would be debatable. Dr. Thompson's website clearly promotes himself. His website headlines that he is a "New York Times bestselling author and international speaker". He's a clinical consultant for Belmont Hill School which is an all-boys school. From my knowledge, all-boys schools are rarely set up for girls.

Amazingly, my nephew is a graduate of Belmont Hill School, and a current FBI Agent with a degree in law from Miami U.

Unfortunately, Bobby Chi (my nephew) has gone over to the 'dark side' (leftism), probably due to his 'leftist' brainwashing at BH.... or, whatevah!!!

Ha, ha, ha!!!

But I thought per CRT that Math is racist; how can you have STEM programs when you can't teach real Math?

Pen Bay Pilot: For meaningfull discussion, start editing the comment section. I know you probably like the click-bait, but let's cut to the ridiculous final comment by "XmasCove:" "For decades, schools have been hindering boys, and favoring girls, who are simply not attracted to STEM majors." I'd like to say he/she/they is/are a sexist nitwit, but know something so argumentative won't get through your system.

We don’t edit our readers’ comments; they either pass or fail (get deleted) our simple policy:

“Penbay Pilot Comment Policy

Be civil, respect opinions, stay on topic. No profanity, name-calling, threatening, trolling. Links are not accepted.”

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If there are comments you dislike, either don’t read them, or offer an alternative argument to further the debate.

Thank you for your reply.

You’re welcome.

Public education is encouraging feminine behavior for both genders. Statistically, there are more male geniuses than female geniuses, but the bottom of the academic barrel is filled with boys. Schools across the country are reporting that their boys are withdrawing from school life and the girls are taking over.

Dr. Michael Thompson, child psychologist and author of Raising Cain says, "Girls outperform boys in elementary school, middle school, high school, and college, and graduate school," Since 2008 women have earned the majority of bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. If the current trend continues, the last male to receive a bachelor's degree will do so in 2068! Women are outperforming boys academically because schools are set up for girls.

Are you one of those boys who haven't been doing their homework, FM?