However, because the “the global competition for science and engineering talent is intensifying... the US may not be able to rely on the international market to fill our unmet needs,” warns the NSB. Indeed, as globalization accelerates, bright young Indian or Chinese scientists may well have better opportunities at home than in the US.
然而，正如全国科学委员会警告：由于全球对理工人才的竞争在加剧，美国不能依赖国际市场来满足国内不足的需求。随着全球化的加速，年轻聪慧的印度科学家和中国科学家在本国完全有更好的机会。
The consequences of this could be enormous. Because the quality of a nation’s workforce has such a huge influence on productivity, effective school reform could easily stimulate the economy more than conventional strategies, such as the Bush tax cuts. Consider what would happen if the US could raise the performance of its high school students on math and science to the levels of Western Europe within a decade. According to Eric A. Hunushek, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. US gross domestic product growth would then be 4% higher than otherwise by 2025 and 10% higher in 30 years. 由此产生的影响是巨大的。劳动力素质对于一个国家生产力有重大影响，所以比起常规策略，比如布什政府采取的减税方案，有效的教育改革更能刺激经济发展，如果十年之内美国中学生数理成绩提升到西欧中学生的水平，设想一下情况会怎样。斯坦福大学胡佛研究院高级研究人员埃里克 A 哈努谢克认为：如果这样，到2025年，美国GDP会上升4%；30年后，上升10%。
That may not sound like much. But Hanushek figures that the 4% annual increase alone would be enough to offset the entire cost of America's public K-12 school system for the same year.
这听上去好像并不怎么样，可是哈努谢克指出：4%的年增幅就等于美国全年从幼儿园到高中全部公立教育计划的全部经费。
Science left behind
幕后的科技
Here's where the problem begins with science education: By the time US students reach their senior year of high school, they rank below their counterparts in 17 other countries in math and science literacy, according to the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, completed in 1996-1997, the largest international study of student achievement ever conducted. In physics, US high school seniors scored last among 16 countries tested.
美国理科教育的问题就是这么产生的：美国高中生的理科水平低于其他17个国家高中生。这是1996-1997年完成的第三次国际数学和科学调查得出的结果。该调查是有史以来进行的最大规模的学业表现调查。在被调查的16个国家中，美国高中生的物理水平倒数第一。
Ironically, President Bush’s education-reform initiative. No Child Left Behind, may be exacerbating the problem, at least for now. Because NCLB now requires that students be tested just in reading and math (science tests won’t be added until 2007). \teaching science and get back to reading and math.” complains Gerald Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Assn which represents more than 50,000 science teachers.
布什总统名为“一个都不能落下”的教育改革方案可能让情况变得更糟糕，至少目前看来如此，这点真的颇带讽刺意味。这个教改方案只测试学生阅读和数学水平（2007年才加上科学测试）。杰拉尔德 惠勒抱怨道：“有人让老师不要教科学，于是就教阅读和数学算了。”杰拉尔德是代表美国50,000名科学教师的机构——美国国家科学教师协会的执行董事。
One result is that most high school graduates aren't adequately prepared for college level science courses. Indeed, the NSTA reports that just 26% of 2003 high school graduates scored high
enough on the ACT science test to have a good chance of completing a first-year college science course. That’s one reason, why enrollments of US students in science and engineering majors has been flat or declining - even as demand for many of these skills increases.
结果呢。大多数高中毕业生无法胜任大学理科课程。美国国家科学教师协会报告说，2003年毕业的中学生，只有26%高考时在理科课程取得高分，从而有能力完成大一的理科课程。因而被录取到理工专业的美国学生人数近几年呈持平或缩减的趋势，尽管需要理工技能的岗位在增加。
Ill-equipped teachers
教师素质偏低
The upshot: The US now ranks below 13 other countries – including Japan, Germany and Republic of Korea in the percentage of 24-year olds with a college degree in these subjects, down from third place 25 years ago. You don’t have to be a scientist to recognize a t e status quo is a recipe for big trouble—or that reversing this slide will require stronger federal leadership and more money.
其结果：拥有理工专业本科学位的大学毕业生比例，美国的排名由25年前的第三滑到了如今的第十四，落后于日本，德国和韩国。你无需成为科学家也能明白目前的情况令人担忧，而需要改变和扭转局面，联邦政府必须加强领导和投资。
Consider one root cause of the problem: the severe shortage of qualified science teachers. An astonishing 28% of those who teach at least one science class in 7th to 12th grades don’t have a major or minor in science, according to Richard M. Ingersoll. an education professor at the
University of Pennsylvania. Moreover, even those who have a science degree are often teaching outside their area of expertise. In the physical sciences—including chemistry and physics—60% of the instructors don’t have a major or minor in the subjects they teach.
请考虑一下这个问题的根本原因：高素质理科教师严重不足。令人震惊的是，再教一门以上理科课程的中学教师中，竟有28%的人不是 主修或辅修理科专业出身的，这个结果出自于宾夕法尼亚大学教育学教授理查德 M 英格索尔的调查。更有甚者，即使有些老师拥有理科学位，所教的课程也与其专业大不相干。在自然科学方面，包括化学和物理，高达60%的教师没有主修或辅修过他们所教授的课程。
Earlier this year. The Teaching Commission, headed by former IBM Chairman Louis Gerstner7, argued in a report that the US must pay science teachers more if it hopes to solve this problem. But that isn’t likely to happen without leadership from Washington. As things stand now, science graduates simply have too many lucrative alternatives to teaching.
今年年初，由IBM总裁路易斯 格斯特纳领导的教学委员会在一份报告中提到：要解决这个歌问题，必须提高理科教师的报酬。这一点没有联邦政府的有力领导是无法达成的。现在的情况往往是理科毕业生有更多赚钱的工作机会，因此不愿意当教师。
As America sleeps, other nations that have long since recognized the critical importance of science and technology education to their futures are moving ahead. The US has grasped this lesson in many Olympic sports, where strong national programs have been established to ensure that America has world-class athletes. Unless the nation applies he same approach to science education, it stands to lose far more than a few gold medals. It could ultimately squander its leadership of the world economy.
美国举步不前时，其他早就意识到科技教育对未来举足轻重的国家却在前进之中，在奥运会的多个项目中美国已经接受教训，推行强大的举国计划以确保美国拥有的世界顶尖的运动员。在理科教育方面，如果美国不采纳同样的方法，最终失去的就不仅仅是几枚金牌，而是世界经济的领导地位。