Articles

Bush signs math, science legislation

Public Agenda Alert
August 9, 2007

President Bush signed the America COMPETES Act today that would spend $33.6 billion more on math and science education, spread out over three years. There's been major concern in education and business circles that the U.S. is at risk of losing its edge in technology because of American students' poor performance in math and science.

This worry may be well founded, but our Reality Check reports find that parents and students do not share this concern about flagging math and science skills. While parents generally support proposals to make high schools globally competitive, 57 percent also say the amount of science and math their child studies now is about right.

In fact, parents' concern about math and science achievement has actually declined since the mid-1990s. In 1994, 48 percent of parents thought their children were not getting enough math and science compared to only 32 percent of parents thinking that in 2005.

Only one quarter of high school students say lack of emphasis on science and math is a problem in their own school. The survey found no significant differences between the attitudes of high school girls and boys, but minority students are more likely than whites to say math and science are "absolutely essential" and that lack of emphasis is a problem in their school.

Copyright 2007 Public Agenda. www.publicagenda.org.

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