Statement On Behalf Of AeA, Advancing the Business of Technology
Before The U.S. House Of Representatives Committee on Education and Workforce
By William T. Archey
President And CEO, AeA
May 3, 2006

Good morning. My name is William T. Archey, and I am the President and CEO of the AeA, the nation's largest high-tech trade association. On behalf of AeA's 2,500 members that span the spectrum of electronics and information technology companies, from semiconductors and software to mainframe computers and communications systems, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to testify before your Committee on the current and future educational needs of America's high-technology industry.

I would like to start off my testimony this morning with a number for the committee to remember: 1.5 percent. One point five percent is the 2005 unemployment rate for electrical engineers. One point five percent is dramatically lower than the overall unemployment rate in this country. For all practical purposes, 1.5 percent is full employment by whatever metric you use.

Now this may shock many people because it goes against the conventional wisdom about the state of the high-tech industry, specifically about the job situation. There are thousands of high-tech jobs available in the tech industry. In fact, the most recent data from our Cyberstates 2006 report, published just two weeks ago, showed that U.S. tech employment was up in 2005 by 61,000 jobs, the first increase since 2000, for a total of 5.6 million. Even the high-tech manufacturing industry added jobs.

However, the key to this job growth is the skills of the workforce. These jobs are only available to those with the proper education and up-to-date training. In talking with the CEOs of my member companies, this 61,000 net increase of U.S. tech jobs would have been much higher if more skilled labor was available to our tech companies. Many of my larger companies have literally thousands of job openings in the United States that remain unfilled.

We as a nation need to address this critical shortage of homegrown high-skilled talent. We need to face up to the long-term challenge of our education pipeline, which is failing to prepare tomorrow's workforce for an economy that is knowledge based and driven by technology.

When comparing U.S. K-12 students to their international counterparts, a disturbing trend emerges, particularly in math and science. While U.S. students in the 4th and 8th grades score in the top percentile, our 12th graders score at the bottom in math and science. This same trend occurs whether you examine TIMSS data or OECD data. It even occurs when examining U.S. Department of Education data.

The Department of Education reports in their NAEP's test that our 4th and 8th grader have improved their math and sciences scores, yet our 12th graders' scores in math and science have declined. And, even while 4th and 8th grade scores are improving, only 32 percent of 4th graders and 29 percent of 8th graders tested proficient in math. This does not bode well for a knowledge-based economy than runs on talent and technical skills.

The challenge is that without this foundation in math and science, we are closing doors for our children. Without this foundation, our children face tremendous hurdles for careers as doctors, engineers, scientists, computer programmers, or any technically-based profession.

And, more fundamentally, this is a challenge for our entire population. In a world in which technology is increasingly ingrained in every aspect of our lives, all Americans need to be technically proficient. Otherwise, they risk falling behind.

As I talk with technology executives, the number one problem that they repeatedly identify is that of competitiveness and of access to a qualified workforce. They are increasingly frustrated by what they see as a decline in the importance of math and science education in our K-12 school system. The tech industry sees K-12 math and science education as the building block on which all future tech workers will be based, and as such they spend considerable time and money promoting these skills.

Interestingly enough there is a consensus in the tech industry about the need to do something. There is also a consensus in our colleges and universities about the need to do something. But this message has yet to reach the constituency that most needs to hear it: our parents, teachers, and children in the K-12 system.

I recently met with Secretary of Education Margaret Spelling who reinforced this very point to me. She told me that all the pressure for education reform—particularly for improvements in math and science education—are coming from business and our universities. She hears very little from the parents and teachers about the need for change. A recent national survey by Public Agenda reinforced this fact. It found that parents do not see a problem with math and science education, despite the statistics that I gave earlier.

To address these concerns AeA is mobilizing its nationwide grassroots organization to communicate the urgency of these issues to the American people. We have convened a series of regional seminars to address this skill shortage and to inform communities about the importance of math and science education at the K-12 level and about the need for a technically savvy workforce. The competitiveness debate cannot remain inside the beltway. This is not only about the future of the U.S. tech industry, but about our children's future. It is their jobs, their prosperity, and their standard of living that are at stake.

We as an industry and a nation have to improve the perception and attraction of careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. All too often, these careers are seen as the domain of nerds and geeks, instead of inventors and leaders. This is tragic. This type of attitude embraces ignorance, and ignorance is poison to an economy that runs on technology and innovation.

Let's face it, we are asking more from our students. We are asking more from our parents and teachers. We are asking for everyone to recognize the new world out there. In educating our children, we would be wise to exalt the accomplishments of America's great inventors and innovators. Instead of enticing our children to pursue science and engineering with statistics about how hard the classes are or how likely they are to flunk out, we would be better served by focusing on how scientists and engineers make life changing contributions to our society. And, if personal fulfillment isn't enough, there is more. Jobs in the high-tech industry pay on average 85 percent more than the average private sector job.

The competition we now face comes not only from the neighboring school district or state, but from the entire, increasingly flat world.

This search for qualified workers is compounded by a visa policy that is badly broken. For the past 60 years America has been the beneficiary of an influx of many of the most talented minds on the planet. This period could grind to a halt given the post 9/11 restrictive visa policies, tremendous opportunities abroad, and the perception by foreign nationals that they are not wanted.

When 40-50 percent of our graduate students in math, science, and engineering are foreign nationals, we cannot afford a visa policy that kicks them out of the United States. These individuals graduate from U.S. colleges and universities and often represent a critical pool of qualified talent.

By kicking them out, we lose their intellectual abilities and innovations. By kicking them out, we force our companies to follow them abroad. By kicking them out, we lose the new companies, wealth, and, ultimately, the hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs they would have created. By kicking them out, we are only helping our competitors in other nations enhance their talented labor pools by chipping away at our own.

And, beyond the economics, consider what happens even when they do go home. Foreign nationals who return with an American education tend to retain positive impressions of the United States as they become leaders in their own countries, fostering strong friendships and linkages. I saw this firsthand recently in Shenzhen, China when a group of high-tech executives met with the vice-mayor who proudly told us about earning his Ph.D. at UCLA. His experience there gave him a profoundly favorable view of the United States.

I fear that we are losing these linkages. These people become members of the business and political elite in their countries. We cannot afford to lose these ties.

America's dirty little secret is that high-skilled immigration has for decades been a critical safety valve for attracting and retaining the best and the brightest from around the world. We as a nation tend to underestimate their contributions. By kicking skilled immigrants out, we are kicking out tomorrow's Albert Einstein, Andy Grove, or Sergey Brin.

So, while the need to act is strongly recognized by many here in Congress on both sides of the aisle, the legislative action that could began to address these issues lies dormant. Too many people, including Members of Congress and the national media, remain distracted by more immediate and visible concerns.

Unfortunately, by the time this issue overtakes all other issues in Congress, it will already be too late. The education of our workforce is a long-term process, with long-term consequences for our businesses and for our nation.

The irony is that the United States already has proven it can compete, but often needs fear to motivate it. In the 1950s, the Soviet Union challenged American leadership in technology by launching the world’s first satellite, Sputnik. Americans feared the Soviets would use this space technology as a weapon. The United States met this challenge by launching a national program to improve math and science education, ultimately winning the space and technology race. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, fear abounded that Japan would become the world’s dominant economy. U.S. businesses responded to the challenge by refocusing their efforts, adopting new technology, and innovating their products and processes.

America can certainly compete. It has the flexibility, pioneering spirit, and capital to win the race; but to do this America needs to recognize that future innovation is not predetermined to occur in the United States. Even if we were doing everything right, we still face unprecedented competition from abroad. Rather than face the new global economy unprepared, America needs to confront this competition head-on by preparing our pipeline and building a strong foundation of math and science education. If we don’t, America faces the erosion of its lead in knowledge-based industries.

Thank you for this opportunity to testify before you this morning. For more about the competitiveness issues facing the technology industry and our country, please read AeA's Competitiveness report at: www.aeanet.org/competitiveness.

This page was last updated on 05/03/06.