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Concerned over the lack of math and science skills of eight graders, leading daily The Washington Post has advocated training young Americans rather than depending on foreign students to boost its economy.
"... if the United States wants to stock its own industry with top-flight technologists, the surest route is to train Americans," the Post said in an editorial published on Sunday.
Noting that the American strategy for addressing star brainpower had 'crashed in the wall', the Post said the expectation that once admitted to the US, foreign students would stay held good partly.
" ... this expectation held good partly because the countries that sent graduate students were not attractive places to return to. Increasingly, economic takeoff in countries such as China and India is changing the equation," the Post editorial said.
"Moreover, it used to be that technologists wanting to serve the American market had to live here; but the growth in 'off-shoring' of technology services shows how times are changing," it said.
"In sum, it can no longer be assumed that foreign math and science stars will tend to remain in this country," it said adding that the surest route to have top technologists is to train Americans.
"International comparisons of high school math and science scores have been dispiriting for some time," the Post said citing two separate studies suggesting that the math skills of American 15-year-olds lag behind those of their counterparts in most other industrialized nations.