STEM crisis is serious for U.S.

On June 1, I sent out a piece on STEM, noted a crisis and two schools that were doing good in my home county of Sussex. For this nation, and many schools and universities, there is a world-wide revolution on STEM, which stands for Science, Technology Engineering and Math, and world-wide we are losing despite great schools like Sparta and Newton in our state and country on this fields of economic take-off,
With our winning of the Space Race, and beating Sputnik, we have allowed a downward trend in the above STEM notions, which during Kennedy and Nixon encouraged interest in Space and Science, but that ended with downward interest in Colleges and Universities and students and schools of all nature, including inner-city, suburbs, and many districts. The pace has picked up, but the numbers are still pitiful.
A study shows that by 2009, the total number of students in college had grown by 50 percent since 1985, but journals report that there were only 15, 496 graduates in STEM Programs in 2009. Students were studying more visual and performing arts than STEM, and few minorities were in such programs, such as math and statistics, computer sciences, and chemical engineering all combined.
The margin has widened with China and Russia pushing ahead on STEM and Artificial Intelligence. The Obama Administration noted the truth to this issue, and even President Trump has issued remarks. Truth is we have been relying on foreign nations for STEM, and AI. We have also been relying on foreign nationals for years, and foreign students who go home to their countries, particularly China.
We need to encourage students to go into STEM, as it pushes forward our economy, and will give us an edge in the 21st Century or we will fail drastically, as ranking 38th on the issue is dangerous to our economic survival.
Bill Weightman
Hardyston