[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 55 (Tuesday, April 17, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H1853-H1854]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             STEM EDUCATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Dold) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DOLD. Mr. Speaker, just minutes ago I had an opportunity to be 
outside

[[Page H1854]]

and see the space shuttle flying around the United States Capitol on 
its way to Dulles, which brought back memories. Certainly those who 
study history realize that back in the '60s it was President Kennedy 
who said that the United States will take a man, deliver him to the 
Moon, and bring him safely back to the Earth. Consequently, the space 
race took off at that point in time and literally hundreds of thousands 
of people became more engaged in science and technology, engineering 
and mathematics, something that I think that we need to rekindle today.
  Mr. Speaker, I represent one of the largest manufacturing districts 
in the United States; and when I tour small businesses throughout the 
10th District of Illinois, employers continually tell me that they have 
got job openings available, yet they can't find people, individuals, 
workers, able to fill those roles, roles that need to be filled by 
those who have taken science and technology, engineering and 
mathematics courses, or the STEM fields.
  In the depths of this recession that we have been going through, 
manufacturing associations have statistics that say 600,000 jobs across 
our Nation went unfilled. They went unfilled because not enough people 
were trained in the STEM fields. These are not low-paying jobs, Mr. 
Speaker. These jobs, on average, pay $77,000 annually. We must empower 
our students and job-seekers to pursue STEM education so that they can 
fill these good high-paying jobs right here at home.
  Certainly one of the pillars of my Main Street Jobs Agenda is that of 
STEM education. If we can prepare our students and those who are 
looking for work, we can help empower these people to find good-paying 
jobs and keep our manufacturing and innovation right here at home.
  The College of Lake County, a college in my district, has teamed up 
with local manufacturers to help provide education, education that is 
necessary in the STEM fields for those who are unemployed or wanting to 
pursue a manufacturing career.
  I am pleased to say that one of the local manufacturers actually went 
to the College of Lake County and said we're actually pulling students 
from Iowa and Ohio, is there any way you might be able to offer courses 
here at the College of Lake County so that we could start hiring people 
locally to fill these jobs. They were all too happy to oblige.
  I recently held a STEM field trip where I took interested students 
from high schools all across the 10th District to different high-tech 
organizations in the region. These students learn how they can apply 
their education firsthand and pursue advanced careers in this field.
  Just last week, I hosted the first-ever Manufacturing and Education 
Summit to bridge the gap between educators and manufacturers. We had 
folks from high schools and colleges. We had manufacturers there trying 
to say what it was that they needed, what were they looking for in 
students who were going to be graduating from either high school or 
college. This is exactly what we need to be doing right now.
  One of the success stories of bridging the gap between education and 
manufacturing is that of Wheeling High School principal Dr. Laz Lopez. 
He has worked with local businesses to find out what the actual needs 
are in the community and offering students options in pursuing a STEM 
education.
  Today, Dr. Lopez has been recognized as starting one of the most 
successful STEM high schools in our country. Just this last Friday, I 
joined him and other STEM students from various high schools around the 
area while they competed in a STEM competition, focusing on 
nanotechnology and high-powered computing. These are extraordinarily 
bright students who are better prepared for the 21st-century workforce.
  STEM education is and should be a bipartisan idea. I believe that 
this is an area of common ground and that we should be promoting local 
efforts all across our Nation to help manufacturers fill open jobs and 
better prepare our emerging workforce for 21st-century careers. We must 
not stand idly by and hope that this happens. Rather, we must be 
proactive and work to spur our local economy by demonstrating the 
success of STEM education.
  Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is one way we can 
help spur our economy to get our country back to work. I would 
encourage my colleagues to get involved in their local schools and 
communities, local colleges, to find out more on how they can better 
prepare students for a career in the 21st century through STEM 
education.
  It was not too long ago that John Kennedy gave us a charge to bring a 
man to the Moon and safely back to this Earth, spurring on STEM 
education. We have to do it again today. We have to make sure that we 
have that pipeline of students to be able to make jobs right here at 
home.

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