GovernmentExecutive.com

The Homeland Security Department's top technology official warned Monday that the U.S. workforce is "in crisis" due to students fleeing math and science fields because they are viewed as too difficult and the payoff too distant.

Unless this generation is energized, the nation will lack a "first-world economy" two decades from now, science and technology undersecretary Jay Cohen said.

Cohen, who assumed his Homeland Security job in August 2006, aired his warnings at a University of Maryland global security summit, underscoring similar recent comments by House Science Committee Chairman Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., and Congressional Research and Development Caucus co-chairmen Reps. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., and Rush Holt, D-N.J.

On Friday, Biggert and 10 other lawmakers sent the most recent in a series of letters to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, requesting that they recoup some of the U.S. competitiveness funds slashed in the fiscal 2008 omnibus appropriations package.

The letter, which asked for more money for Energy Department basic research projects, was also sent to House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wisc., and ranking member Jerry Lewis, R-Calif.

The U.S. business community is partly to blame for the dearth of science, math, engineering and technology scholars, Cohen said, because private-sector commitment to R&D must be consistent regardless of which administration is in power. "We don't have the leadership in industry to make the sustained investment in basic and applied research because of [falling] monthly and quarterly returns," he said.

Cohen said recruiting a top-notch workforce is part of his plan to improve the performance and morale of his directorate, which had an $830 million budget in fiscal 2008 and has been highly criticized by Congress and policy watchdogs since its creation. Cohen restructured the directorate soon after his confirmation, and the components in his jurisdiction now rank among Homeland Security's highest performing, he said. Cohen called his department, which combined 22 disparate agencies and offices, "an incredible experiment in nuclear fusion" as he and other agency leaders try to find the best ways to work with state, local and tribal governments and emergency first-responders.

On the international front, Cohen said he has helped forge homeland security partnerships with Australia, Canada, Israel, Mexico, Sweden, Singapore and the United Kingdom, while Homeland Security officials are currently working on agreements with France, Holland and New Zealand. The U.S. government is close to signing a deal with the European Union, which has pledged 1.3 billion euros for security-related projects, many of which involve the development of new technologies.

COMMENTS

• The tide is turning. Most credible post-secondary schools graduating engineers at the bachelors and masters level are now showing statistics that their engineering students make 35% more money in entry level jobs than their other graduates, on average. What happens after that is a mystery to me, but I would suggest that American firms taking manufacturing jobs overseas presents a chicken or egg syndrome for many types of engineers. FI Posted June 17, 2008 7:54 PM
• I've recently made the jump from engineer to program manager as well. It took about five years of struggling to find meaningful employment as a mechanical engineer before I got fed up with it and became a PM. This is after 3 years army active duty, and 6 years of supporting myself and working my way through a very difficult technical curriculum at college. I've heard of tilesetters, plumbers, and hardwood floor installers making $100k to $150k in the construction industry here in California, and business majors just out of college becoming millionaires in the mortgage industry, while most engineers start out at well below $100k and probably have less job security...what's the incentive? As a PM, I have some control over funding and project direction, and I actually get to come out of my cube and interact with people every now and then as opposed to working the technical side where engineers are the Rodney Dangerfields of the business world and funding comes and goes at the whim of a PM who, most of the time, has no technical background whatsoever. I think that this is a problem in the UK, and possibly other western countries as well. A friend with advanced degrees in electrical engineering and physics has given up on his technical career and is doing very well investing in the petroleum, rail, and a few other industries. noman Posted June 17, 2008 10:31 AM
• Young people are responding to the economic incentives of our society. We do not value engineers as much as we value business and sales people. I can say that because the salaries, income and career opportunities of technical people are far below those in the business world. If engineers and scientists could expect incomes equal to or greater than business people, especially executives, over the course of their careers then there would be a much greater incentive to become engineers and scientists and we would have more. I am an engineer who made the transition to the business side because I could no longer advance in the technical world and needed more revenue to provide for my children's college education. It is a matter of not valuing engineers and scientists as we should. Doug McCone Posted June 17, 2008 9:27 AM