Statements On Introduced Bills And Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

By Mrs. GILLIBRAND (for herself, Mr. KAUFMAN, Ms. SNOWE, Ms. CANTWELL, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, and Mrs. MURRAY):

S. 3043. A bill to award planning grants and implementation grants to State educational agencies to enable the State educational agencies to complete comprehensive planning to carry out activities designed to integrate engineering education into K-12 instruction and curriculum and to provide evaluation grants to measure efficacy of K-12 engineering education; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I am pleased to lead a bipartisan group of Senators today to introduce the Engineering Education for Innovation Act, also called the E\2\ for Innovation Act. Joining me in leading this are Senator KAUFMAN, Senator SNOWE, Senator MURRAY, Senator CANTWELL, and Senator KLOBUCHAR. The intent of this legislation is to competitively award planning and implementation grants for State educational agencies to integrate engineering education into K-12 curriculum and instruction to spark student interest in engineering through comprehensive K-12 engineering education including hands-on design and engineering components.

The bill increases the availability of K-12 engineering education curriculum and teacher professional development programs, encourages broader participation of girls and underrepresented minorities in K-12 engineering education, invests in afterschool engineering education programs, and the legislation also funds the research and evaluation of such efforts.

Our Nation today faces pressing technological challenges in renewable energy, biotechnology, health care technology, material science, and information technology. According to the National Science Board's 2010 Science and Engineering Indicators, only 5 percent of college graduates in the United States major in engineering, compared with 12 percent of European students, 20 percent of those in Asia and one-third in China. In addition, while women earn 58 percent of all bachelor's degrees, they constitute only 18.5 percent of bachelor's degrees awarded in engineering. African Americans hold only 4.6 percent and Hispanics hold only 7.2 percent of bachelor's degrees awarded in engineering.

As a woman, I am a strong proponent of programs that support girls and underrepresented minorities. Many K-12 students, especially girls and students from underrepresented groups or who are economically disadvantaged, and their teachers have little knowledge about the engineering design process or the many career possibilities in engineering. Today, we continue to have an untapped pool of potential technical workers, and we must leverage the diversity of these individuals to fuel the innovation necessary for our future global competitiveness.

I am committed to initiatives that enhance student participation in STEM, diversify the STEM pipeline and promote competence and confidence to teach engineering for preparing the next generation of our Nation's high tech workforce for a sustainable and competitive economy. Long term investments in STEM education will pay rich dividends to our future economy by building capacity to innovate.

The introduction of engineering education has the potential to improve student learning and achievement in science and mathematics, increase awareness about what engineers do and of engineering as a potential career, and boost students' technological literacy. I want to thank all my colleagues for joining together to address the critical needs of our Nation in a bipartisan manner. I look forward to working together to move this legislation through this Congress.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source