Chapter 22 Chapter 8 The Quiet Crisis (2)

In 2001, the U.S. government issued 20 percent fewer visas to foreign students than in 2000, and the rate has increased in subsequent years.When university presidents told me that things were looking up in 2004 and that the U.S. Department of State Security was trying to speed up and simplify the visa process for foreign students and scientists, a lot of damage was irreparable. Any field of work will involve national security factors, which has become a heart disease for the US government.No wonder "New York Times" education columnist Sam.Dillon said in the report: "This year, the number of foreign student applications received by American graduate schools has dropped by 28%. The actual number of foreign students enrolled in graduate schools has dropped by 6%. For the first time, enrollments of all foreign international students studying undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral programs in the U.S. fell. Meanwhile, university enrollments in the U.K., Germany and other countries were growing rapidly. Chinese applications for graduate studies in the U.S. fell 45% this year, while Some European countries announced a sharp increase in the number of Chinese students enrolled (December 21, 2004)".

Some analysts believe that purely comparing the total number of science and engineering graduates in India, China and the United States may be extremely misleading, because inaccurate statistics are difficult to obtain, and ignore the "gold content" of engineering degrees in different countries s difference.For example, in December 2005, the research project of Duke University's Science and Engineering Discipline Management Project was titled "A Framework Research on External Substitution of Engineering and Technology Human Resources: Putting the United States on the Same Playing Field as China and India".

The report notes that data for India and China often include two- or three-year junior college graduates with no rigorous training, while the U.S. data specifically refers only to highly trained four-year bachelor's graduates.The Duke study also distinguished two different types of science and engineering graduates: creative engineers and operational engineers.Creative engineers are individuals who are able to think abstractly and use scientific knowledge to solve problems at a high level.These engineers are usually trained through a rigorous education program of at least 4 years in science and engineering disciplines, and their jobs are not readily available from external alternative human resources.Operational engineers, on the other hand, are usually taught by colleagues, technicians, or a diploma-style education rather than a strict bachelor's degree education.They may have the basic knowledge and skills of science and engineering, but do not have the experience and ability to use this knowledge to solve larger problems, and their work can easily find substitute human resources.Duke University's research concluded that the United States still has a higher proportion of creative engineers and computer experts than India and China, and therefore still has a greater competitive advantage.

However, I still add the following caveats to the results of this study.First of all, engineering degrees in American universities are awarded not only to US residents, but also to many foreign students, who will return to their respective home countries.Second, it's true that the average Chinese and Indian S&T degrees may not be as high as US 4 year formally trained graduates, but it should be recognized that there are many more Indians and Chinese (many, much higher ratios than US) Are studying natural sciences, computing, and engineering at a home or US university.In a flattened world, advanced knowledge always spreads quickly.

Therefore, I have no doubt that in the next 20 years, the average level of undergraduate degrees in science and technology in China and India will closely match the level of the United States.What we should see is the development of the trend, not just today's fragments. Best Kept Secret #2: The Educational Gap - From the Top The most important reason for the digital gap is, of course, our gap in education.We don't give our kids a good education, or we don't pay enough attention to educating our kids about math, science, engineering, etc. Take a look at the annual Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, where about 40 countries nominate contestants each year through local branches of the contest organizing committee.In 2004, the event attracted about 50,000 American kids, according to Intel Corporation.And when I asked Chen Weiding, president of Intel China, about China's competition situation during a visit to China, he told me: "China now conducts selection competitions in the country, and almost every province will send students to participate in the selection. In China, there are 600 Thousands of children participated in the competition, although not all of them could enter the finals..." The Chinese attach great importance to this competition.

Those selected to participate in the final stage of international competitions are allowed to enter university studies without examination, and can choose to enter the top universities in the country at will.In the 2004 competition, China won a total of 35 awards, more than any other Asian country.These awards include one of the three top global awards. It's no wonder that Education Weekly, a magazine that all teachers read across the United States, published an article titled "Immigrant Children Top in Math and Science" (July 28, 2004).The article reads: “A study by the National Foundation for American Policy found that 60 percent of the top-achieving students in science and 65 percent of the top-achieving students in math came from families that had recently immigrated to the United States. The survey was based on data from the list of winners of various school competitions in the last three years, Intel Corporation’s Science Talent Survey, members of the U.S. team participating in the International Mathematical Olympiad and Physics Competition.” The authors of the study put immigrant Homeschoolers' success is partly attributable to their parents asking their children to organize their own study time. Many parents of immigrant families encourage their children to study math and science, believing that mastering this knowledge will increase their children's future career prospects. Competitiveness, thereby avoiding the prejudice and lack of relationships that affect them...

Many of the parents of the students surveyed came to the United States on H-1B visas issued to skilled workers. "The author of this study, Stewart Anderson, is the executive director of the fund. He believes that the US government's policy of excessively restricting the inflow of immigrants is risky and may lead to the stagnation of the continuous and steady flow of scientific and technological talents into the United States. The article cited Anderson The example of Ray Monteanu: Andrea Monteanu's parents immigrated to the United States from Romania 5 years ago, and he began to receive American education in the 7th grade. At that time, Andrea Monteanu discovered that the United States 7 The mathematics and science courses in the grade textbooks have been familiar from time to time, and it turns out that he has learned the same content when he was in the 4th grade in Romania...

Every four years, the United States participates in research on international trends in mathematics and natural sciences.The study divided all students into 3 groups: 4th grade, 8th grade and 12th grade.The most recent study involved around 500,000 students in 41 countries and 30 languages, making it the largest and broadest international study of education levels ever conducted. The results of the 2004 study (relevant tests were conducted in 2003) showed that the performance of American students was only slightly higher than that of 2000. From these data, it can be seen that the US labor force is less competitive in technology than the United States. against its rival country. On December 4, 2004, the Associated Press reported that the science and mathematics scores of 8th grade students in the United States had improved since the first test in 1995, but these improvements mainly came from 1995 to 1999. That said, the improvements in recent years have been minimal.Of course, these 4 years of improvement have given the US a higher ranking relative to other countries.Worryingly, the performance of American fourth-graders has stagnated since 1995, neither rising nor falling.As a result, the U.S. ranks behind relative to countries that have made progress.Ina, co-director of Boston University's Center for International Studies, which organized the study."Asian countries are making steady progress in advanced science and math education," Mullis told The Associated Press. For example, test results showed that 44 percent of Singapore's 8th graders were advanced in math, while Taiwan's The proportion is 38%, while the proportion in the United States is only 7%. Another international education test aimed at evaluating the quality of students also concluded in December 2004: the ability of 15-year-old American students to apply mathematics skills to solve practical problems below the international average.

In 2005, a report entitled "On the Brink" by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Medicine can partially explain the above phenomenon.Research shows that in 1999 only 41% of 8th grade students were taught by math teachers who had graduated math majors, well below the world average of 77%.Especially in the education of American high schools, it seems like a black hole, relentlessly hitting young people's interest development, especially for female students who want to choose natural sciences. In October 2005, my wife and I traveled to New Haven for Yale Parents Weekend to have pizza lunch with our daughter, her daughter's roommates, and the boyfriend of one of the roommates.I'm sitting across from this gentleman, his name is Eric.Sturt, 24, is pursuing a Ph.D. in nanobioengineering at Yale.Eric is exactly the kind of young people that the American education system should train a large number of.His grandfather was a watch engineer, and his father was an MD and professor at Columbia University. He became interested in natural science at a very young age, especially when he saw his father's laboratory and used to make parts with his grandfather.When he was in high school, it was Westinghouse

Science competition finalist, earned a BA at Yale and went on to graduate school.He is currently working on a government-funded project using nanotechnology to monitor airborne toxins, which could have broad application in the fight against terrorism.Sturt and I had a quick conversation about contemporary science education in America. At the beginning, he mentioned the five Yale undergraduate girls present here, "Look at everyone here, I eat pizza with these smart girls, but unfortunately none of them is engaged in natural science like me." Why do you study the humanities?I asked Sturt.He believes there are many reasons for this.First, "People want to do things that are fun. But things like algebra or memorizing multiplication tables are completely uninteresting, but these basics are required for freshmen, and these things are completely boring and seem to be useless. In fact, only in the upper grades can you get the so-called fun, but the premise is to master these boring basic knowledge. And the current culture is to go straight to the fun."

Referring to Yale, Sturt told me: "I like Yale, but none of my friends are even interested in what I do, and if I'm going to talk to them about what I do, I have to make it funny .Yale's job is to 'produce' presidents, not 'produce' scientists. And presidents don't recognize the value of science. There is no better example than Bush. I was at a wedding recently, and all my college buddies are now It was investment bankers and they discussed how much money they made. I also started to count how much I made and here it is: 80 hours a week and $3 an hour. However, I never let money dictate the way I think .” In the 1970s and early 1980s, young people who wanted to be lawyers began to outnumber young people who wanted to be engineers.Then, with the Internet boom, the number of young people who wanted to go to business school for an MBA overwhelmingly outnumbered the number of young people who wanted to become engineers and lawyers in the 1990s. While other countries have worked on their math infrastructure and benefited from a more creative approach to education in the education system, the culture of the United States has produced some of the most creative scientists and engineers, according to Sturt. Stressed that this is why American children must improve their basic skills in mathematics and science. Similarly, we must also strengthen the basic education of science, so as to maintain and stimulate children's creativity.He thinks the removal of art and music from public schools is crazy. "One of the most important sources of creative thinking and work philosophy that I have acquired in my life is music. I am a classical music lover. Like a sports team. It also leads you to interpret your plans and inspirations in new ways.” Thank you society in America for “producing” people like Eric.There are young men like Stern, but we must have no illusions: he and his colleagues are just a smaller and smaller minority.Sturt added: In America today, many people's best hope is to be a doctor, lawyer or banker, not an engineer or a scientist.What he worries about is where does the foundation of innovation come from? "Are we exporting our own superior factors, or China's superior factors?" He asked, "I want to be sure that we should have our own trade products." He re-emphasized the importance of the foundation of natural science, "Science and A lot of engineering technology is about professionalism - not only willing to master all the basic knowledge, but also to continue to persevere in an experiment that has failed 20 times." He is most impressed by the students in Asia and the best in the United States" When a Chinese graduate student meets me in the lab and says, student professionalism. 'Why are you working so hard', that's the biggest compliment I can get." I hope that more young people in the United States can feel this way, but the statistics show the opposite. The educational problems in the United States are not limited to mathematics and natural sciences. American students' simple reading and writing skills are also declining. On December 16, 2005, the "New York Times" reported the results of a survey of American college graduates' English literacy skills: the average level of college graduates' reading and writing skills has declined significantly in the past ten years.This is college grads -- not guys who drop out. The National Adult Literacy Assessment conducted by the Department of Education in 2003 is the most important test for examining the writing ability of American adults. The New York Times noted, "The test also found that Americans' grammatical proficiency in English reading and writing has fallen sharply, while blacks and Asians have improved significantly." The test conducted in 1992 showed that 40% of Graduate literacy is the level of proficiency in reading long, complex texts in English and reasoning with difficulty. In 2003 testing, only 31% of graduates were proficient, out of a total of 26.4 million graduates...” Grover. J. Babes is director of a research institute at the Ministry of Education that monitors the assessment. He believes that the literacy skills of college graduates are declining, because more and more young people spend a lot of spare time watching TV and surfing the Internet in recent years, "their interest in reading is declining, and reading can improve literacy. effective means of competence.” Best Kept Secret No. 3: The Aggressive Gap Our love of TV, video, and online gaming helps reveal a third secret—something some of America's best CEOs have whispered to me: "When they By moving work overseas, the company not only saved 75% in wage costs, but also saw a 100% increase in production.” Some of the reasons for this are easy to understand. When you take a low-status, low-paying job in the U.S., like a call center operator, and move it to India, that same job becomes a high-wage, high-status job—the company pays less, But the motivation of the workers is stronger than in the United States.An American CEO of a multinational company headquartered in the UK told me, “Offshore outsourcing can not only save costs and improve efficiency, but also greatly improve production quality and productivity.” After retraining, Indian workers can do the workload of 2-3 Europeans, and these Bangalore employees do not enjoy 10 weeks of vacation. "If you think offshoring is just a matter of lowering wage bills," he added, "you won't be surprised, but the truth is, these workers are working so hard, it's scary." Shortly after returning from India, I was met at the airport by a young man who wanted to talk to me about what I had written about India.We had a good chat, so I asked for his business card, and we kept in touch via email.His name is Mike.Alghero, who lives in San Antonio, is an IT systems architect.Since he is engaged in high-end IT system design work, he does not feel threatened by foreign competition.Alongside his work as a designer, he also teaches.When I asked him what we needed to do to maintain our competitive advantage, he sent me this email: I teach at a local university.I saw many students dawdling around without thinking ahead.I am very frustrated.I've taught their courses for 6 semesters and would only consider hiring two of them to help me.Because other students lack creativity, problem-solving skills, and enthusiasm for learning.You know very well that the biggest advantage Indians have over Chinese and Russians is that they speak English.But it would be a mistake to think that Indian developers at the highest level do a better job than their American counterparts.The Indians have the advantage that they can devote a lot of manpower to a problem.The Indians I've ever worked with at work are the best.They also all graduated from MIT and went back to their countries. There are so many of them. If you follow me through the various conferences throughout the day, you will find it obvious that most of my day All the time dealing with Indians.Most executives are also left with the impression that all Indians do are low-end jobs in software development—a collection of software components.However, the application of some technologies like Linux has enabled them to start working on higher-end system design, which was completely monopolized by Americans before.These Indians mastered along.technology chain.The way to climb up, and gradually reached the same height as the Americans.Now, the confrontation between intelligence and intelligence begins, and the aggressive posture of the Indians is awe-inspiring. From a technological point of view, the world will become flatter (if possible).The only two areas I haven't seen Indians yet are network designers and system designers, but I know it's just a matter of time.Indians are very smart. They can quickly learn the knowledge they want in the process of communicating with system designers and discussing how to solve and coordinate various IT problems.If Congress passes legislation to organize the hiring of India's labor force, some large software systems will run without anyone knowing how to operate them.Unfortunately, in the IT world, many management positions are not technical managers, and they may not realize the seriousness of this situation.I'm just an expert in information systems, not an economist, but I know that a high-paying job requires workers to create more value. There are high-end jobs and low-end jobs in the economy, but many people are no longer equipped to do high-end jobs.If you don't seek to make progress, and don't want to receive higher education, you can only engage in low-end jobs, and your income will naturally not be high.This truth could not be more clear, but more and more Americans are still obsessed with it.Many Americans can't figure it out, those high-paying jobs are not done by Americans, so who else is qualified?I call this thinking .American fantasy... Simon Cowell once told some applicants that they didn't have the ability in this area, and those applicants didn't believe it-I don't know if you have seen that scene.I just hope that one day, I will not be awakened by such ruthless but absolutely true words. But the problems started in high school, if not earlier. In the summer of 2005, I received a letter from Malcolm Davidson, a high school teacher in Washington state.It reads as follows: Dear Mr. Friedman, I teach fifth grade reading and society at a private high school in Tacoma, Washington.Although many students come from different races and are well-educated, most of the children come from white, upper-middle-class American families.I just finished reading your new book recently.There are two chapters in it.Triple Confluence.and.A silent crisis.I went through it before you wrote it.Reading this made me realize that the world really is flat.I really wish I could have shared my thoughts with you before you wrote these two chapters.Holding parent-teacher meetings is a more interesting job, but I never realized that it would also be a cultural learning process.I went through the process of flattening the world with Two Parents, which I started two years ago.One meeting was with Deven and Swati Vora (guess where the Vora family immigrated from?). When discussing their daughter, Sonia, they told me they didn't think the school did enough homework and it wasn't hard enough.A few days later, I met with another parent, Irena Mikeladze, who immigrated from Western Europe. She wanted to know why her son Toms didn't have any science books and was taking such rubbish science courses.How can we be competitive when we don't even have natural science books?The attitudes of the parents of these two families represent two different national characteristics, which made me think for a long time.Unfortunately, many white, middle-class Americans say that fifth grade is too difficult for their kids, that kids can't do their homework, and don't have time to do a real one.Kids... football, gymnastics, music lessons and dinners crowd out their study time.Some parents have even asked my colleagues and I to ease the burden on these children.These transition-worried parents set low expectations for their children and interfere with teaching; they assume that everything is fine and never ask for more. As long as their kids are doing okay and having fun, they've got a good education.Our school fits perfectly into the 11/9 mindset.As a school, we compete with the schools in the next street or town. Parents will be satisfied if they believe we are better than other public, church, and private schools.But as you wrote, I realized from those two parent conferences that the real competition was no longer from schools in neighboring towns or neighboring states.You are right, a lot of times we read that we are deluding ourselves.Theoretically, we are no longer angry (except when cheerleading, playing soccer, and missing the lottery).We are complacent and constantly causing trouble.Unfortunately, national leaders are still figuring out how to keep our children from being left behind.Kansas and Georgia even seem to drop the Darwin curriculum and add intelligent design!If one puts one's ear close to the flat earth, one can hear competition from overseas quite clearly.As an educator, our goal should not be to be the best school in the local area, but to be the best school on the planet. Essentially, before the world started to flatten, the whole of America was an isolated island — an island that encouraged innovation, security, and growing incomes.Then it becomes a giant magnet to which the intelligence of capital from all over the world is constantly trying to flow.And when your currency becomes world currency and everyone is digging their heads out to work on your doorstep, you start to take things for granted. Asian countries do not have these favorable conditions. In the winter of 2004, I had tea with Koo Chao-ming, chief economist of Nomura Research Institute, in Tokyo.Gu and I tested the "flatness coefficient" I proposed: the so-called flatness coefficient refers to such a concept - the flatter a country itself is, that is to say, the less natural resources a country has, the situation of this country in a flat world the better.In a flat world, an ideal country does not have any natural resources. Because a country without natural resources is helpless, it tends to tap its own potential and improve its competitiveness.These countries will seek to mobilize the energy, entrepreneurship, creativity and intellectual enthusiasm of the entire population, rather than the enthusiasm for digging oil wells.In terms of natural conditions, the Taiwan region of China is a barren island located in a typhoon-prone sea, with almost no natural resources except for the drive, enterprise and talent of the local people. But today, it has the fourth largest foreign exchange reserves in the world.The economic success of Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong, China's coastal regions can also be explained by the same reason. "I am an American Taiwanese, my father is Taiwanese, and my mother is Japanese," Koo told me. "I was born in Japan, received elementary school education in Japan, and then immigrated to the United States. There is a Chinese saying As the saying goes: what you learn and what you eat, others can't take it away. My teacher told me this sentence when I was very young. We can never live like Americans and Canadians, Because our natural resources are very poor. So we have to study hard, work hard and export a lot of products in exchange for foreign exchange.” Then, I read an article written by Steven, a financial columnist and reporter for the Washington Post.Reporting from Wroclaw, Poland, in an article titled "The Curtain of Capitalism in Europe" (July 23, 2004), Pierstein writes: "A curtain has been drawn over Europe, Divide Europe in half. On one side of the curtain is hope, optimism, freedom, and a vision for a better life, and on the other side is panic, pessimism, suffocating government regulation, and several feelings that are not as good as they used to be." Peel "The curtain divides Eastern Europe, which is embracing capitalism, from Western Europe, which is eager to get rid of its competitor, Eastern Europe," Stein said. "However, this time, it's likely that the East will win," he continued. "You can feel the energy there and the anticipation of winning. Capital and companies are coming into the region in large numbers - not just some big names Companies like Pontiac, Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, Toyota Motor, and Volvo, including the supplier networks formed around these companies. At first, most of the new jobs were unskilled, semi-skilled jobs.Workers in Eastern Europe are now able to work in engineering design and other fields, and these jobs are mainly completed by the region's abundant supply of university graduates... Large companies invest here not only to reduce the cost of wage expenses, but also because here of workers have a positive work attitude and are willing to do whatever is necessary, even if the outsourcing of certain jobs would result in fewer jobs, even if workers would be required to work overtime on weekends or even change their leave arrangements – all of which in Western Europe would undoubtedly lead to up to Months of protests and negotiations.Those in Western Europe have not yet understood how much will need to be changed if their existing interests are to be preserved, and the danger to Western Europeans is enormous.They don't know how quickly things are changing. .It is not so much a dream of wealth but a willingness to work hard, to make whatever sacrifices are necessary, and to change all the practices that need to be changed to close the gap with the West that inspires the people of Wroclaw working hard.Wroclaw Mayor Rafal."A sense of honor and a sense of conviction can explain why that finite society on the other side of the curtain is so terrified of our progress," Dutkiewicz said. Best Kept Secret No. 4: The Educational Gap—From the Grassroots When you look back at America over the first three decades of the 20th century, you can see the roots of our advanced public education system, which was long outdated in a flat world. In the early 20th century, the United States decided to structure the American education system by delegating power and responsibility to local school boards.We allow individual communities to organize their own educational subsystems, determine their teaching, textbooks, etc., and their own compensation structures - rather than nationalizing the education system like most countries or interstate like Germany. "The impact of this approach is that the national education system is a system pieced together by local education councils," said Mara, chairman of the National Center for Economics and Education.In this way, Tucker points out, the relatively well-to-do could organize a "self-tax" district that would unite the wealthy themselves, paying relatively low tax rates while still allowing schools to have high average per-pupil budgets.Conversely, people with relatively low incomes have to pay higher tax rates, but the budget spent on each student is very low. At the same time, in such a poor community, the society is unstable, and it is difficult to have high expectations for educational outcomes. After World War II, Tucker pointed out, highway construction subsidies and home mortgage subsidies created suburban satellite cities. There was de facto segregation in schools in the 1960s, as white families mostly abandoned the big cities and moved to the suburbs, leaving cities that were more segregated (due to race and class). Around all these postwar American metropolises, satellite towns were "well" planned for racial and class forces, with school districts to match. There is no question that the wealthiest school districts attract the best teachers, principals, and curriculum designers, and the parents with the greatest educational needs, while the poorest suburbs and school districts correspond to the worst teachers, principals, and parents. Poor parents who have to work three jobs to support their families (who have little time to help their children with their homework). In contrast, other industrialized countries base their funding on standard curricula offered by schools, funded from the state budget. The United States is always willing and hopes that public schools will become a medium to change a person's social status. The poor hope to improve themselves by studying in public schools, so that they have the opportunity to enter a higher level of society.However, due to the unevenness of funding, many areas in the United States are no longer what they used to be, and public schools often do not receive funding. Tucker added: "The US has been able to maintain this education system for so long because the 1930s was an era of mass production. It is true that we were very efficient at making certain things, and we were educating a lot of people. Batch after batch of labor that can be engaged in mass production, and pour a lot of money into those creative elites. So if you go to a privately run school or a public school in an affluent area, the education you receive is more conducive to creativity. However, the worst public high schools only provide children with 'bread and butter' skills. If there are many mass-produced jobs that can provide 'bread and butter', the pay is good The salary, and waiting outside the gate of high school, everyone's life will not be too bad." Unfortunately, the world is flattening, those mass-produced jobs have been largely replaced by automated machines or external human resources, and there are fewer and fewer decent jobs for the uneducated.For example, 30 years ago, in many American cities, manufacturing companies were the largest employers, but now they have become centers of medicine or technology research and development. Therefore, high schools with poor funds and poor personnel are walking the road of death. "There's no future there anymore," "So we have to find a way to educate our young people at a higher level," Tucker said. If you don't upskill them, the only way for low-skilled workers to compete is to lower their wages. " The fifth well-kept secret: the gap in education funding So far, compared with other countries, the United States still has an advantage in teaching science and engineering at the university level and in establishing university research bases. “However, as China develops generations of young people through its ever-improving secondary and college education system,” Barrett said, “China will be at the same level as the United States in 10 years. We are not There is no end to our infrastructure construction in education. For all kinds of new thinking, there is no best, only better. So we have only two choices, either to meet the requirements of the flat world, or to let Investment in the natural sciences has fallen." Craig, chairman of Intel Corporation.Barrett said: "If America's technology is going to stay ahead, innovate and provide jobs in the future, then the government should be responsible for investing in basic research." 根据一个工作组2004年提供的关于美国技术创新对未来影响的研究报告，不幸的是，联邦政府拨给支撑GDP 的物理学、数学和工程学研究的资金在1970年到2004年之间下降了37% .2004 年11月，美国共和党主导的国会通过了2005年年度财政预算。 其中为国家科学基金会编制的预算被削减了1.9%或1.05亿美元，而这个部门在联邦政府中的职责却是促进科学研究和资助更多更好的自然科学教育。当美国应该为国家科学基金会增加预算的时候，国会竟然砍掉了对科学研究的资助，历史会证明给我们看，那些人犯下了极为愚蠢的错误。2006年度财政预算在这方面的进展是细微的——2.4%的增长。能源部科技办公室——美国物理学研究最重要的资助者，在2005年只得到2.9%的预算增幅，在2005年仅增长0.9%，在扣除通货膨胀之后，实际上是一个“粗暴”的预算缩减。 2006年1 月，全国总工会发布消息说，总统发誓要努力改变教育研究预算减少的局面，我们拭目以待。我们该做什么？2005年10月，国家科学院和美国医学科学院发布题为《在风口浪尖上》的报告，这是由科学家和企业家组成的专门小组调查研究后得出的报告。该报告认为，为了21世纪美国的发展，在未来7 年，美国联邦在研究领域的投资每年必须增长10% . 它同时还推荐了几个新的研究补贴项目（每个项目在未来5 年中每年获得50万美元的补贴），以资助大约200 个最杰出的年轻研究人员。