Creative Class

So why won’t anyone in national political leadership do anything about it?  Bill Gates enumerates many of America’s key competitiveness issues in this Washington Post piece. (The whole thing after the jump). How many times have we heard this before?  Why is America’s  political class so utterly out of touch? And why does business tolerate this state of affairs? Your thoughts?

How to Keep America Competitive

By Bill Gates
Sunday, February 25, 2007; B07

For
centuries people assumed that economic growth resulted from the
interplay between capital and labor. Today we know that these elements
are outweighed by a single critical factor: innovation.

Innovation
is the source of U.S. economic leadership and the foundation for our
competitiveness in the global economy. Government investment in
research, strong intellectual property laws and efficient capital
markets are among the reasons that America has for decades been best at
transforming new ideas into successful businesses.

The most
important factor is our workforce. Scientists and engineers trained in
U.S. universities — the world’s best — have pioneered key
technologies such as the microprocessor, creating industries and
generating millions of high-paying jobs.

But our status as the
world’s center for new ideas cannot be taken for granted. Other
governments are waking up to the vital role innovation plays in
competitiveness.

This is not to say that the growing economic
importance of countries such as China and India is bad. On the
contrary, the world benefits as more people acquire the skills needed
to foster innovation. But if we are to remain competitive, we need a
workforce that consists of the world’s brightest minds.

Two steps
are critical. First, we must demand strong schools so that young
Americans enter the workforce with the math, science and
problem-solving skills they need to succeed in the knowledge economy.
We must also make it easier for foreign-born scientists and engineers
to work for U.S. companies.

Education has always been the gateway
to a better life in this country, and our primary and secondary schools
were long considered the world’s best. But on an international math
test in 2003, U.S. high school students ranked 24th out of 29
industrialized nations surveyed.

Our schools can do better. Last
year, I visited High Tech High in San Diego; it’s an amazing school
where educators have augmented traditional teaching methods with a
rigorous, project-centered curriculum. Students there know they’re
expected to go on to college. This combination is working: 100 percent
of High Tech High graduates are accepted into college, and 29 percent
major in math or science. Contrast that with the national average of 17
percent.

To remain competitive in the global economy, we must
build on the success of such schools and commit to an ambitious
national agenda for education. Government and businesses can both play
a role. Companies must advocate for strong education policies and work
with schools to foster interest in science and mathematics and to
provide an education that is relevant to the needs of business.
Government must work with educators to reform schools and improve
educational excellence.

American competitiveness also requires
immigration reforms that reflect the importance of highly skilled
foreign-born employees. Demand for specialized technical skills has
long exceeded the supply of native-born workers with advanced degrees,
and scientists and engineers from other countries fill this gap.

This
issue has reached a crisis point. Computer science employment is
growing by nearly 100,000 jobs annually. But at the same time studies
show that there is a dramatic decline in the number of students
graduating with computer science degrees.

The United States
provides 65,000 temporary H-1B visas each year to make up this
shortfall — not nearly enough to fill open technical positions.

Permanent
residency regulations compound this problem. Temporary employees wait
five years or longer for a green card. During that time they can’t
change jobs, which limits their opportunities to contribute to their
employer’s success and overall economic growth.

Last year, reform
on this issue stalled as Congress struggled to address border security
and undocumented immigration. As lawmakers grapple with those important
issues once again, I urge them to support changes to the H-1B visa
program that allow American businesses to hire foreign-born scientists
and engineers when they can’t find the homegrown talent they need. This
program has strong wage protections for U.S. workers: Like other
companies, Microsoft pays H-1B and U.S. employees the same high levels
– levels that exceed the government’s prevailing wage.

Reforming
the green card program to make it easier to retain highly skilled
professionals is also necessary. These employees are vital to U.S.
competitiveness, and we should welcome their contribution to U.S.
economic growth.

We should also encourage foreign students to
stay here after they graduate. Half of this country’s doctoral
candidates in computer science come from abroad. It’s not in our
national interest to educate them here but send them home when they’ve
completed their studies.

During the past 30 years, U.S.
innovation has been the catalyst for the digital information
revolution. If the United States is to remain a global economic leader,
we must foster an environment that enables a new generation to dream up
innovations, regardless of where they were born. Talent in this country
is not the problem — the issue is political will.

The writer
is chairman of Microsoft Corp. and co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation. His wife is a director of The Washington Post Co.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 11:36 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.