Industry Week cites Council President on education reform, innovation

A story in Industry Week discussed the need for education reform in the United States, and the benefits such reform would have on U.S. competitiveness. The article, by Jonathan Katz, quoted Council on Competitiveness President Deborah Wince-Smith speaking about the importance of math and science curricula: 

Another area that's been the focus of education reform discussions is a greater emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. Educators should continue to strive for improvements in STEM subjects but without cutting other programs that foster creativity, says Deborah Wince-Smith, president of the Council on Competitiveness and assistant secretary for technology policy during the first Bush administration. 

"We have a tremendous effort in the country to accelerate not only our teaching quality but our teaching and outcomes in math and science and STEM, and that's very important," says Wince-Smith. "We do have low performance compared to other parts of the world. But the worst thing we can do as we do that is to take away the arts, the music, the social sciences -- all the things that need to be wrapped around that core scientific knowledge that is where innovation comes from."

…

Wince-Smith says changes in the U.S. academic system need to be dramatic. "We need to have radical reform in schools and not just move around the edges," she says.

The Council recently called for improvements in science and mathematics education as a tool to foster competitiveness.