Immigration reform on H-1B high skilled visas may help US students study science, technology, engineering, and math

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Tucked into immigration reform legislation in both chambers of Congress are little-noticed measures that could pump hundreds of millions of dollars into cultivating a new generation of American students interested in science, technology, engineering, and math (or STEM). Such a move could help shore up what much of corporate America and many lawmakers see as a glaring deficiency in the nation’s long-term economic competitiveness.

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Specifically, legislators would increase the fee that employers pay to sponsor high-skilled temporary workers (visas known as H-1Bs) and direct $1,000 of that bump toward a special “STEM fund.” The fund would also be supported by an additional $1,000 cost to employers looking to sponsor H-1B workers for permanent residence in the United States.

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Companies that want a boost in H-1B visas say the US is producing far too few STEM graduates of its own. A Microsoft study from this year, for example, found that the US is set to graduate 50,000 students with a bachelor’s degree in computer science over the next decade – when job openings requiring such a degree are expected to be more than double that figure.

The STEM fund would boost opportunities for students to get hooked on engineering, math, and science as career goals before they’re even thinking about college. At present, points out Saba of NMSI, that’s just not happening on a broad enough scale: Only 10 percent of American high-schoolers take an Advanced Placement course in math or science – a key predictor of future college study in STEM fields.

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But that broad consensus has notable detractors, including analysis by the liberal Economic Policy Institute (EPI) that finds that H-1B workers may actually be contributing to a lack of interest among American students for STEM fields –particularly in information technology – by competing with new college graduates for entry-level jobs.

Three EPI researchers argued last month that because the H-1B program is mostly used to fill entry-level positions, a large supply of foreign-born workers has helped companies substitute cheaper young people for older workers and crowded out some US graduates. Adding roughly 100,000 more foreign workers per year (both through H-1B channels and through new, faster pathways to green cards for foreigners obtaining advanced STEM degrees at US universities), as the House and Senate bills would do, would further dampen wages and decrease the attraction of such fields for US workers, the researchers posit.

To Read the Full Article visit the Christian Science Monitor piece on it: LINK

[BaBamSam 239]

I think this "solution" is more of a band aid or political attempt than anything else. There are so many other factors involved in why we aren't producing more hirable graduates (tuition costs, early education, etc.).

I can't see this solution as encouraging students to study computer science.

[Darnell 8,478]

The major problem for Computer Science students , IMO (based on empiral evidence the last 20 years and the interviews I've done)

is that somewhere mid-stream, they decide that they really cannot understand the TA (teaching assistant) that is actually teaching the undergraduate courses in computer science. The accent is just too thick. The TA tries to regurgitate what's in the book, and doesn't have a good grasp on 'how to teach'.

Where do these TA's come from, that fail so miserably? Uhm - these are foreign students on masters or phD programs, that were awarded scholarships and stipends (instead of them paying full international student rates) and as part of their 'requirement' - they must teach 1 to 3 classes each semester.

It's really bad. IMO, 1K a pop, twice, isn't going to fix anything related to STEM education, at all.

Change the requirements for these 'teachers' , for elocution, diction, and accent? The rate of change-over from comp-sci to business degrees drops, and more folk actually entering in school to seek a comp-sci degree will actually finish it.

[Darnell 8,478]

Really, in the end, as part of some 'other' analysis -

if'n the TAs are all female, super-smart, WASP and curvy,

then the change-over rate will fall to 0, as everyone in class will be paying attention.