Our recent editorial on the problem of high school math being taught by unqualified teachers (http://machinedesign.com/article/why-johnny-cant-do-algebra-0925) continues to get a lot of comments. Some of them, remarkably, are from teachers who see nothing wrong with algebra classes taught by a gym teacher having no training in math.  So it was personally gratifying to see a recent article in the Wall Street Journal called 'Why we're failing math and science.' In it Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, is asked what it will take to get the American educational system up to the level of some other developed countries in terms of math and science. Here is part of his answer:

"The most important thing is to bring to K-12 education college graduates who excel in math and science. Those countries that are doing best are recruiting their K-12 teachers from the top third of their college graduates. America is recruiting our teachers generally from the bottom third, and when you go into our high-needs communities, we're clearly underserving them."

WSJ: How do you explain that? It doesn't seem to be a function of money. We spend more than any of these other countries.

KLEIN: "We spend it irrationally. My favorite example is, I pay teachers, basically, based on length of service and a few courses that they take. And I can't by contract pay math and science teachers more than I would pay other teachers in the system, even though at different price points I could attract very different people. We've got to use the money we have much more wisely, attract talent, reward excellence............."

The entire article, as well as some videos of the discussion, can be found here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704754804574491180197671224.html

Apparently the WSJ authors were unaware of the work of the Rutgers group which is studying this very (alleged) trend, namely, not enough STEM grads to feed the (again alleged) STEM career pipelines:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/28/10engineer.h29.html?tkn=ZQ[FHhMHPmR0MnDTN3v8WfWt%2FKowJkPYxxn2

Quoting directly: 

"“This may indicate that the top high school graduates are no longer interested in STEM,” the authors write, “but it might also indicate that a future in a STEM job is not attractive for some reason.”

What factors could be turning qualified students away from science and math fields? While the authors say their data cannot answer that question definitively, they speculate that top-tier students may regard non-STEM careers—in health care, business, and the law—as higher-paying, more prestigious, or more stable. “There are numerous accounts of financial firms hiring top-performing STEM graduates at much higher salaries than those offered by STEM employers,” they speculate."

Having no data myself, but also having struggled (and failed) to get into the career field of MY choice, I, like many STEM graduate degree holders, have been aware of the more likely scenario: 1) we have plenty of STEM capable graduates--what we have a shortage of well paying STEM career fields, and 2) "chicken little" cries for "more STEM graduates" always come from groups which have much to gain from an oversupply of STEM graduates, and also much to gain from a shortage, if they convince the feds to dramatically increase immigration quotas, with the goal of reducing labor costs in the various STEM career fields resulting from both states, glut and shortage.