Brings to mind Bill Gates saying we need to have an increase in the visas (HB?) from foreign countries for the high level science and engineering jobs because there aren't enough home grown applicants for the jobs. If we expect to raise our level, we need to do it with immigration (relying on other countries to have good education), or we have to reform our education system to one centered on excellence rather than simply trying to make everyone meet one particular standard.
H1B holders are in demand because they do not want as much money as US-born engineers AND its a lot easier to import talent than it is to develop it here.
If you accept that 90% of GT kids are never identified, then we have a HUGE number of techies sitting in our schools. A program to ID and guide these kids into magnet schools in each major metro area would solve the tech gap in 10 years or less. We could triple the PHDs in 5 years after that.
But, we are caught up in this "fairness" mirage. Most kids cannot play varsity football - just as most kids cannot become engineers or PHDs. We have tremendous athletic programs at almost ALL schools, but the academics in comparison SUCK!!!
