This document is circulating around the agency. Here are the five main points:
- Restoring integrity to U.S. science policy to ensure that decisions that can be informed by science are made on the basis of the strongest possible evidence.
- Doubling over a 10 year period the federal investment in basic research by key science agencies, with a special emphasis on supporting young researchers at the beginning of their careers, and backing high-risk, high-return research.
- Making a national commitment to science education and training by recruiting some of America’s best minds to teach K-12 math and science and by tripling the number of the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowships.
- Encouraging American innovation to flourish by making the R&D tax credit permanent, streamlining our patent system, eliminating the capital gains tax on start-ups and small businesses, and promoting the deployment of next-generation broadband networks.
- Addressing the “grand challenges” of the 21st century through accelerating the transition to a lowcarbon, oil-free economy, enabling all Americans to live longer and healthier lives, and protecting our country from emerging threats to our national security.
Sounds good to me! Especially the third point. You need to catch kids early to get them interested in science and math. If they have spent all their school years disliking (or not understanding) it, then there’s no way they’ll decide, once they enter university, “Hey, how about a career in science!”
I did some part-time work last year in an after-school program for Hispanic kids from poor neighborhoods. They were disinclined to think anything related to school could be fun, but after we had contests to create the best paper airplanes and designed tin-can phones, they started to come around. A couple of them were very bright, but a few hours a week for one school year isn’t enough to make them into budding scientists or engineers if there isn’t more reinforcement along the way.
The worst part, though, was that not one of the kids had any idea about NASA. I know when I was their age, I was dying to go to SpaceCamp. And I think it’s even more sad because Purdue University, “cradle of astronauts” as they like to call themselves, is right here in the community.