NASA administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. has a good article in the Orlando Sentinel today stressing the importance of education to our country’s future.
President Obama has made an excellent start at refilling this crucial educational pipeline. He has tripled the number of National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships. He has ensured that a substantial portion of Recovery Act funding goes toward developing technologies that can jump-start a clean-jobs economy.
And he has called for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education to be a priority in his “Race to the Top” initiative, which will provide billions of federal dollars to improve primary education.
NASA will work with the Department of Education on this initiative, providing resources, content and expertise. NASA will continue its investments in providing research and flight opportunities to America’s students — helping to develop and train our future workforce.
We can continue to inspire the next generation of NASA scientists and engineers by holding more competitions to help high-school and college students turn their creative talents to exploring our planet, solar system and galaxy; ensuring more government scientists and engineers are mentoring and tutoring in classrooms; offering more incentives for private-sector innovators to add value to NASA’s special resources; and continuing to use our growing familiarity with space to understand and protect our home planet.
It is crucial that America remains the world leader in science and technology. We must find innovative ways to inspire and educate the next generation of scientists and engineers or watch other nations assume our leadership role. The choice is ours.
