Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Congressional leaders forgetting the T in STEM

Many people have heard that “The World Is Flat,” read Friedman’s book with that title, and heard about the fervor of legislative support for initiatives supporting STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Apparently, some US legislators in Washington want to leave out the “T” which made the world flat in the first place.

According to latest EdTechActionNetwork PDF on EET:

The House Appropriations Committee approved its version of the FY07 Labor, HHS and Education Appropriations bill, which includes no funding for the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program. Despite the infusion of an additional $4.1 billion over the President’s request for Labor, HHS and Education funding and a fierce campaign from the education technology community, House appropriators opted to eliminate EETT and slash spending on the Teacher Quality block grant by 10%. Owing to the approval by the full Committee of a provision to raise the minimum wage and continued dissatisfaction with funding levels, House leaders have deferred floor consideration of this spending bill until at least mid-July.

US educators supporting educational technology in schools should make their voices heard. Visit www.edtechactionnetwork.org for more info, including details about funding in specific US states, and action steps you can take to contact your representatives in Washington. The EdTechActionNetwork is sponsored by COSN and ISTE.

For more on this, refer to my post “No time for technology in high schools” from last month. We do need STEM emphasis, not SEM! (We also need literacy development, not just math and science!) The governor of Virginia is speaking out, and your state governor should be too!


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