 |
| Math & Science |
February 06, 2006 |
| |
Dear Friends,
Sometimes, a piece of work is so well done that it has a disproportionate impact. It creates momentum or points the way on an important or difficult problem that people can rally around.
Before Christmas, the National Academies of Science came out with a report on math and science education and made some big recommendations on preparing young people for the jobs of the twenty-first century. The people who wrote it had been advocating its general ideas for a long time. People like Norm Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin Corporation, Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board of Intel Corporation, and Chuck Vest, the President Eneritus of MIT.
We get tons of reports on Capitol Hill. But this one had a real impact on everyone who read it. The day after it was delivered to the Hill, my staff member who works on education put it on my desk with a note saying I had to read it. He was right. I was immediately impressed and sensed this was exactly what we needed at a time when we needed it.
The same day, I went to Sherry Boehlert, the Chairman of our Science Committee. He also thought it was great, as did Vern Ehlers, a former Science professor and member of Congress from Michigan who has been advocating larger federal investments in basic research and improved teaching in math and science for a long time. They had arranged to go to the White House to tell the budgeteers and the President that this should be a big part of their agenda and the State of the Union Speech.
The report had a similar impact in the Senate where our Senators, Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman, along with another great leader on education, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee were equally impressed and carried the same message to the President. The President`s science and education people were telling him the same thing.
The momentum began to build. For me, the highlight of the President`s State of the Union address was this math and science initiative.
Improving public education is the reason I first got involved in public life over a dozen years ago, and finding ways to strengthen math and science education is a big part of what I have tried to do in the Congress. That isn`t always easy in the House. I have some colleagues who don`t believe the federal government should be involved at all in education and others who believe that nothing is ever enough.
On Friday morning at the Intel plant up on the hill in Rio Rancho the President came to talk about this initiative. He sat next to Craig Barrett, who helped to author the report that got this rolling. He listened to New Mexicans describe a bright future and spoke with passion about the importance of strengthening math and science education.
The President gets it. A bipartisan majority in the Senate get it. The House will be where the difficult fight is. I get it. And I`ll fight to get it done.
Wish you were here,
 |
|
|
|