Competition Worries Graduate Programs et al

Competition Worries Graduate Programs - Washington Post

As Many Dropouts as Degrees - Washington Post

Bush Promotes Math, Science Education As Crucial for Jobs - Washington Post

Bush: U.S. Must Compete With India, China - Washington Post

Shrinking Opportunity on China's Campuses - Washington Post

It is hard to know whether this ‘reverse brain-drain’ is good or bad – or just fair turn-around.

For decades the US has been educating the world’s best minds, only to have them remain here and benefit US companies, investors, and, with priority, our public. Meanwhile, their home countries were left with the ‘trickle-down’ industrialization that our advancement generated.

Now, the world’s brightest have growing opportunities for alternative study, and fewer of those that do come are staying after graduation. It is an accomplishment of our educational system that it too has trickled-down around the globe.

Let us be clear, this is a good thing. Proverbially, our world brethren have learned to 'fish' on our shores and many have gone home to continue on their own, and to teach, as well.

The fact that the world’s advancement exposes a weakness in our own on-going quest, for internally driven competitive advantage, is even better. But we need to address the problem with more urgency. With 1.3 billion of the population, China plans to dominate world science by 2050, propelled by a nearly unquenchable need for the limited resources of growth.

The alarm is sounding. Winning is staying in the game. More of our kids, of all colors, need to want to be the brightest, as our long-term competitiveness and quality-of-living are the stakes.

James C. Collier

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