Doin the Math

Seventy thousand engineering students were graduated in 
the United States last year(2004), 350,000 in India and 
600,000 in China. America has lost its technological 
dominance.

A computer science degree in India, at their best school 
costs $600/yr. In the United States it costs in excess of 
$100,000. Notice the difference. 350,000 graduates in 
India, 70,000 in the United States. What price the 
economic incentive?

Are colleges and universities worth it? Is their 
educational stodginess impeding our technological 
progress? Can we afford an infrastructure that drives up 
the price of education?

And here sits the Internet long overdue. It's time to 
import foreign curricula to combat the high cost of 
domestic education? Is it really worth it for an American 
University degree, where students enter anonymous classes 
of 300 people, and registration accepts international 
credits. Why spend $30,000/yr at a University when 
350,000 newly educated engineers are waiting in India to 
put $300/yr foreign curricula online. Why should we have 
faith in our local institutions when IT corporations 
invest billions in overseas educational, development, R&D 
and recruitment capabilities?

Okay! So a student needs the guidance of a professor to 
show them how to use a bunson burner and get molecular 
weights, and students need the camaraderie and fostering 
only an educational institution can bring, but all that's 
fast becoming a luxury. If corporate America is going to 
push us headlong into the fast paced, low waged 
international economy, it's time for our bureaucracy and 
its educational institutions to make the move with us.

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