Haley Stevens: “I strongly support S. 761, which Senator Inouye just discussed. This is the America COMPETES Act. Fifty-six Senators…”

“I strongly support S. 761, which Senator Inouye just discussed. This is the America COMPETES Act. Fifty-six Senators, including members of both parties' leadership and several committee chairmen, are cosponsors of this important legislation. When it was first brought to my attention last year, I tried to see if we could organize a joint committee of the Congress to act on this subject because I believe it is extremely important. Having read the Augustine report, I knew we had to move as quickly as possible. That was not possible last year, but I believe it is this year. Many reports have revealed the serious competitive challenges we face. In 2003, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, compared 15-year-old students living in 40 industrialized nations. For America, the results were very dire. Our students placed 16th in reading, 23rd in science, and 29th in math. Carl Sagan said it best when he wrote this: We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.”