President Obama announced on Tuesday the creation of a new Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Master Teacher Corps, which will start with 50 exceptional STEM teachers and eventually grow to 10,000 over four years. Teachers involved in the program will contribute their expertise and leadership in exchange for an annual stipend of up to $20,000 on top of their salaries. The initiative is the latest attempt to boost STEM education from the Obama administration, at a time when studies show American students are less interested and less advanced in those fields than students in competing nations like India and China.
The administration has been forced to walk a fine line with regards to STEM education: It must acknowledge and respond to concerns from the tech industry and educational community that the U.S. is falling behind, without wading into the complex and heated policy area of overhauling education, which bogged down the domestic agenda of Obama's predecessor. To that end, the White House has proposed several similar STEM programs that amount to chipping around at the edges of the problem, attempting to promote best practices without instituting any sweeping overhauls that would provoke real controversy. The corps is an attempt to recognize top teachers in those fields and reward them, making it appear to be a step in the right direction. But there remains a shortage of STEM graduates overall, and those that do pursue those fields are often in demand, meaning schools must compete with private sector jobs that pay better and may offer more room for advancement. The bonuses may help, but they are unlikely to significantly sway the career choices of young STEM graduates.
A more effective intervention would have to take place at the undergraduate level, where more students interested in pursuing teaching should be encouraged to enter STEM fields. American college students still overwhelmingly study liberal arts, despite the high unemployment rate for recent college graduates and evidence that STEM-trained students are more likely to find a job quickly and earn more money. Some sort of loan forgiveness or incentive program to encourage students to choose engineering or math over economics or English would make a more immediate impact than overhauling K-12 schooling, which is challenging and at best produces incremental improvements. If the real goal is to get more qualified STEM teachers in front of students, the first place to go are the institutions that train our future teachers.
EU Probes Microsoft Over Browser Choice: The European Commission announced Tuesday that it has initiated an investigation into whether Microsoft failed to comply with 2009 commitments to offer Windows users a choice of their preferred Web browser. The complaint must feel like deja vu to the software giant, which endured a lengthy antitrust trial in the 1990s sparked by its decision to bundle the Internet Explorer browser with a version of Windows. The Commission said the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 failed to include a browser choice screen as expected; Microsoft blamed a technical error for the failure and apologized, promising to fix the issue immediately. Microsoft played a role in sparking recent EU probes of Google, but this news is evidence the company's relationship with European regulators remains prickly at best. Lawmakers Want SAFE WEB Act Extended: Reps. G.K Butterfield, D-N.C., and Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., introduced a bill on Tuesday (HR6131) that would reauthorize and extend a law that allows the Federal Trade Commission to pursue and combat cross-border fraud. The law, known as the SAFE WEB Act, authorizes the FTC to respond to fraud concerning international activity and protect American consumers from foreign e-commerce sites that would scam them or steal their personal information. The legislation originally passed the House unanimously and was signed into law by President Bush in 2006. A markup is expected soon, but it's unclear whether the legislation has time to reach the House floor before the August recess. Unknown Phone Company Resists FBI Demand for Records: Recent reports on the massive number of requests from law enforcement for consumers' phone records also revealed that at least one telecom company refused to acquiesce to an FBI request for information. The unknown company's decision to fight the FBI's national security letter in court is rare and could prove to be a turning point in the constant battle over privacy and digital surveillance. National security letters don't require a judge's oversight and have become increasingly common since the passage of the Patriot Act, reflecting the broader decline in privacy protections for U.S. citizens against government surveillance. The Justice Department has filed suit and is seeking a court order compelling the company to give up the data, but the company has enlisted the likes of the Electronic Frontier Foundation to help with its defense.