Good and Bad News on Sci & Tech from WashTech

[eridani]

Bad news: For 20 years now, Americans have been denied the opportunity to fairly compete for jobs which we are qualified for in our own country due to unfair guest worker programs and immigration lawyers that “game” the green card system.


But America’s Got Talent:

American 4th and 8th graders matched their classmates in Germany in the latest round of TIMSS, the prestigious math and science international test.<1> India and China , the two countries where tech companies recruit most from, don’t participate in TIMSS<2>.

Black Computer Science graduates essentially reached parity in 2006; no longer can they be dismissed as an “under-represented minority”.<3>

Over the past decade, US colleges and universities graduated roughly three times more scientists and engineers than were employed in the growing science and technology workforce.<4>

American’s don’t need science degrees to work in science and tech jobs, especially Information Technology. 40% of these jobs were held by liberal arts graduates from academic years 1997-2000.<5>

America Needs Equal Opportunity to Be Competitive

"H-1B workers may be hired even when a qualified U.S. worker wants the job, and a U.S. worker can be displaced from the job in favor of the foreign worker," according to theDepartment of Labor's Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2006-2011.

Americans face "H1-b Only" or " OPT Only" want ads for US job openings; many advertising free training and green cards.<6>

Silicon Valley now has fewer White, Black, Hispanic and Female IT professionals than in 2000.<7>
55% of America ’s “best and brightest” STEM graduates, those with the higest GPAs, didn't land jobs in STEM fields in the late ‘90s.<5>

Mircrosoft, Intel, Goldman Sachs and other American companies have increased their hiring abroad while laying off thousands of Americans in 2009.<8>

It's time to play fair now. We’ve got an over abundance of experienced tech professionals and an oversupply of new science & technology graduates whom we have paid dearly to educate.

Congress must reform guest worker programs that discriminate against American talent, facilitate the offshoring of top-dollar white collar jobs, force us to train our foreign replacements, and displace us from our jobs in favor of foreign citizens.

Co-sponsor and pass S.887 the H1-b & L-1 Reform Act, sponsored by Senators Durbin (D-IL and Grassley (R-IA) and the companion bill in the House, HR. 5397.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<1> New York Times, 12/09/08
<2> http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/
<3> Nov/Dec 2008 issue of NSBE Magazine/Career Engineer.
<4> Lindsay Lowell, Director of Policy Studies, Georgetown University
<5> "Steady as She Goes Three Generations of Students through the Science and Engineering Pipeline", Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Rutgers University
<6> Businessweek, March 31, 2009
<7> Mercury News, 2/13/2010
<8>http://www.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/1210_h1b.html?sortCol=benefits&sortOrder=1&pageNum=1&resultNum=50

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. "Silicon Valley now has fewer White, Black, Hispanic and Female IT professionals than in 2000"

wow

[eridani]

2. Kick for the night owls n/t