The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Jobs act, H.R. 6429 was introduced in the House by Rep. Lamar Smith on September 28, 2012 and passed on 11/30 in the house 245 to 139. Iowa Representatives Braley and Loebsack voted No while King, Latham and Boswell voted in favor. The bill was referred to the Senate and was read on 12/3 and 12/4/2012. I spoke with Jens Krogstad of the Des Moines Register on this topic recently, and read the article and accompanying citizen commentary today. I am disappointed in the direction the article took, as it focused on an individual’s plight instead of the larger problem surrounding the STEM worker shortage.
As the Governor and Lt. Governor of Iowa have outlined via their multi-year, statewide STEM initiative, there is a need for this state to grow the population able to fill open STEM jobs. A University of Iowa survey in 2012 documented that 61% of Iowans agree that there aren’t enough skilled workers to fill STEM jobs in Iowa (slide 14 of the UNI Study). The Iowa Workforce development projects the need for STEM qualified workforce to grow from 57,830 in 2008 to 67,330 jobs by 2018, especially in the priority economic sectors of bio-science, information technology, and advanced manufacturing. These industries are prominently represented by employers large and small – names like DuPont/Pioneer, Monsanto, Rockwell Collins, Vermeer, Pella, and others in all corners of the state.
Our pipeline of homegrown talent, however, is leaking. Our 8th graders, at the top in 1992 nationally, have fallen to 25th in Math and 13th in Science. Only 51% of Iowa ACT test takers in 2010 were college math-ready, and only 11% of them were actually interested in a STEM major. To top off the data, 93% of Iowa’s population growth comes from Latino/Asian/African-american populations who are half as likely to pursue a career in STEM fields than their white counterparts.
So couple the increasing need for workers in our STEM industries (from ~58000 to ~67000) with a decreasing population of potential homegrown STEM workers (STEM-interested high school graduates now at about 4000) , and we have a deficit. Since it takes at least 22 years to take a newborn through college, and our STEM agenda is working hard to grow the number from K-16 within the 22 year constraint), our deficit will naturally grow over time until we fix our production problem. The choice is to export the jobs or import the people.
Importing individuals may sound petty and trite, but economically it is a choice. Without the oceans, mountains, temperate climate, and activities, we know that our government officials’ desire to import new Iowa citizens from the coasts will be minimally fruitful. So, why not figure out a way to keep talented, STEM-ready, young people here? BTW, this problem isn’t localized to Iowa – Brad Feld has shared his frustrations via his posts, Vivek Wadhwa through his book, the Immigrant Exodus, and numerous others, our industry titans are hurting for qualified individuals and unable to find them.
That’s what the STEM Jobs Act is designed to do. The democrat representatives and President I voted for killed that movement to protect a silly diversity lottery. A lottery that brings people with no eye for what they bring to the country. More partisan politics that bears little benefit for the country’s citizens. There is a chance I might get to discuss this with the President himself in a few weeks. Hopefully I can deliver the message more concisely for political consumption by then.
Please hit your employees in DC to tell them we need the STEM Jobs act. Here are the links –
Bruce – http://braley.house.gov/contact
Dave – https://loebsack.house.gov/contactform/default.aspx
Barack – http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
–Tej
Category: Politics
A Tale of two Johnstons
The citizens of Johnston came out in a democratic voice yesterday and denied the school board the ability to raise $51MM in debt via municipal bonds to build a new high school. Participation in this process showed me two views of my community that I’d like to share here, but first a brief intro to the project.
The Johnston public school district is growing and is projected increase by 1100 over the next 8 years. 
After the past decade of improvements to elementary and middle schools, the district turned its attention to the aging high school, built in the 70s (when population was growing from 270 toward 2500 per the 70s and 80s census’), already overcrowded and aching for support. After much consternation, the district presented a proposal to the community via public townhalls, participatory meetings and volumes of data. This proposal, though not perfect, was a result of community interaction and changes were still possible if this vote had been approved.
The tombstone of the proposal is still available. I was glad to attend two of the four public meetings and had my questions about the finances answered and voted yes on the proposal on 9/11/12. Apparently a majority of Johnston residents who voted agreed this was important, but the votes weren’t sufficient for passage (the proposal received 55% support vs the 60% needed).
The Johnston that is engaged and one that isn’t….
I was able to attend two of of the four public sessions on this issue. Scanning the Johnston middle school auditorium both times, I saw about 100 people in the room comprising district employees, Principals, teachers and parents. I saw the city Mayor, press and commercial partners. In those two meetings, about 400 (eyeballed, not scientific count) of the city’s 17,550+ residents heard the case for (or against) the new project, the school and its cost in these four meetings. Even if twice that number saw the detailed materials for the school on the district website, that represents less than 10% of our city engaged in a fairly important local issue. Not very representative of a democratic society.
The east vs. the west side of Johnston
I was glad to hear comments from residents of the old Johnston – the one from 70s and 80s when the city was still <2500 people. That Johnston is no more. It will never be that Johnston again. The complaints from the historic neighborhoods of Johnston that the new sections are causing this need for growth were interesting, but irrelevant. Of course the new neighborhoods cause growth when new people move in. The new neighborhoods are high valued properties paying their fair share in higher property taxes. The formula for taxes is linear — 99 cents per $1000 in valuation.
The affected vs. the unaffected Johnston
WHO Radio asked me if I’d support the bond issue if my kids weren’t currently enrolled. Of course I would — we grow as a community of residents, workers and corporations when we see an investment in the future. The small and large corporate citizens of Johnston don’t exist here because this land is cheap – they exist partly because there is (was?) a higher focus on education in our community. They see their future workforce learning in our K12 schools. Their employees reside in our neighborhoods. Though I wasn’t a product of Johnston’s school system (growing up in India makes it hard to ride the school bus across 12 time zones), I understand that we as a community invest in the WHOLE community. If we expect to pay for every service received AT the time of receiving it, we need to plan for and begin a transition to a fully privatized school system or get educated in the art and science of homeschooling.
But we also believe in something called citizenship – a word at the very heart of our founding, at the very essence of our democracy; the idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another, and to future generations.”–President Barack Obama, September 2012
Participatory vs. Spectator Johnston
About 4800 people voted on Sept 11. 2012 in this election out of the 17,550+ residents of whom about 12,000 are of voting age (data from US Census). About a quarter of the city’s population participated in setting a direction for the city’s non-voting population. That non-voting populace is 100% our future that will now receive their education in:
- mobile classrooms
- crowded hallways
- aging classrooms constructed in the 1970s
- aging stadium
Or, perhaps some of the families will begin contemplating a move to Ankeny, Waukee, SE Polk and other school districts where the citizens have approved an investment in education.
***
Des Moines Register Coverage
When I built a business all on my own
I recently received an invitation to a breakfast meeting of local conservative group. Though I wear my political affiliation on my sleeve, on Facebook and voter registration clearly, the invitation wasn’t unusual because it came from a long-time friend who is deeply involved in the community. What was unusual was how the invite ended —
“If you are a small business owner, remember: You did not build your business, somebody (ie. Government) did it for you ????????”
The surprise wasn’t that the email contained the above rhetoric that has been emblematic of current politics. The surprise is that it came from someone I hold in high regard for helping me build my business 17 years ago. I’d left the protections of the large corporation and its benefits and had worked in my basement, writing software, for 6 months. When a second big customer came through, I approached a prior co-worker to help with the new work. His core requirement for moving was, even then, insurance so I went looking, unsuccessfully for insurance. When the large insurers in town scoffed at our small group size of two, one small, family owned business accepted the challenge. He went to bat for us with Principal Financial, Blue Cross Blue Shield and others and found our tiny group of two a policy that was acceptable, affordable and competitive. We stayed with his brokerage for the next 15 years. His and his team’s work helped attract future employees to the company and helped us grow.
He was not the only one who helped, but was one of the few.
Similarly, customers like Terry DeRoin of Nestle Food Company, helped me grow. I had been doing contract coding work in 1994, when a chance referral from Microsoft Solution Provider program landed a fax at my desk. Terry, a controller for the Waverly plant, had looked at software developers in Iowa before and was largely unhappy. When he came to my house in March of ’94, I happened to be in sweats and a t-shirt (him in a suit!). He did hire me after looking at sample code and gave me months and years of work that took me from tiny revenue to significant amounts. Without his initial work, who knows if I could’ve even hired employee #1.
Leaders of Federal and State government agencies helped my previous company grow when they selected a company from Des Moines, Iowa for their critical projects over much larger companies in the US and abroad. Today, StartupCity exists because local, state and corporate leaders have lent their support behind a mission and dream we shared with them. Government agencies — Des Moines Councilmembers, County Supervisors, Director of Economic Development or the Governor’s office — all contribute heavily to our existence. Mentorship from leaders of the Des Moines Partnership (indirectly the Des Moines business community) remains critical in our beginnings and current work.
My work today is that of a mentor and advisor to nascent companies. I do it voluntarily, with no promise of income or revenue, not because I have nothing else to do. I do it because since my arrival in the US, people like Elaine and Ralph Jaarsma of Pella instilled the volunteer spirit in me. They spent extremely valuable time on me, a foreign student, to enter the Iowan work ethic. They showed me how a tiny bakery in a town of 8000 people had national reach, how their work from 2:30 every morning till the end of the day, and their dedication to their community defined their success. Despite their successes and life’s challenges, they continue to embody the volunteer spirit of helping others.
Dozens of new entrepreneurs benefit from the numerous city and business leaders who give up their personal time, early and late on weekdays and weekends to help companies. In Des Moines, watch Bankers Trust CEO Suku Radia, for example, challenge and guide entrepreneur after entrepreneur in his office, coffee shops and city spots, and you’ll see the tireless spirit adding value to companies. Watch the dozens of meetings Mike Colwell at the BIZ arranges in the city to supercharge people’s businesses, and you’ll know it takes a village. Ayn Rand followers know that every Howard Roark has a Mike, a Cameron and a Dominique who challenged him and, in turn, guided him.
Business owners know who helped them along the way – from teachers, spouses, family, mentors, employees and customers. I don’t know what selective listening candidate Romney was practicing that made him miss the boldfaced text below, but I stand with the President’s speech –
“Let me tell you something. There are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”
I was inclined to go to the breakfast meeting tomorrow and make a snarky remark about the irony of the message. But that would be disrespectful to someone I hold in very high regard; I hope he knows how many tiny businesses he helped grow over his remarkable career and continues to support daily.
Immigration issues – revisited in DC
There is an eerie consensus across the aisle in DC that our current immigration system is broken, in need of reform, and change is necessary for the long term economic growth. There is little consensus on how such reform will be achieved, who will lead it, and what will eventually motivate Congress into action.
Human Capital, impacted by immigration, was one of the core topics of the Des Moines Partnership’s DC trip this spring and I am privileged in being able to join business and government leaders from our region on this trip. I am certainly privileged to work with Lori Chesser from the Davis Brown Law firm and invited to a panel on immigration.
The panel, consisting of Rosemary Gutierrez and David Johns from Sen Harkin’s office, Kathy Neubel Kovarik from Sen Grassley’s office, Aaron Brickman from Department of Commerce, Ben Johnson from American Immigration Council, and moderated by Lori Chesser was attended by various members of the Des Moines community and focused significantly on answering questions from the audience and thus remaining very interactive.
There are three forms of legal immigration today – 1) marriage to a US citizen, 2) sponsorship by an employer, or 3) sponsorship by an American citizen family member. Being involved in all three forms, I felt comfortable contributing my experience and need for policy changes and bills currently circulating in DC. I am married to a natural born US citizen from Iowa, have sponsored, on my previous company’s behalf, several H1b candidates from India, Nepal, Indonesia and Vietnam, many of who are taxpaying residents, green card holders, naturalized citizens and contributors to Iowa and the US economy. I am also sponsoring my sister, a Malaysian citizen to the US.
What is broken and in need of fix are the second and third categories. Whether it is the HR3012 bill that allows green cards to be issued from the available pool rather than be artificially limited, the proposed StartupVisa that allows for foreign entrepreneurs to start their businesses in the US when sponsored by an accredited US investor, the DREAM act or others, several solutions exist and are available to Congress.
What I heard from many during this recent visit to DC was that many in Congress would rather wait for a comprehensive immigration reform. Both Senators’ offices comments were consistent that they prefer comprehensive reform such that visas should not take jobs from US workers, college seats from native US students, be considered comprehensively and not piecemeal etc.
Though a desire for comprehensive reform is respectable, Congress hasn’t shown an ability to work together toward real reform in my voting life in the US. Furthermore, careers in STEM fields continue to be underfilled by software developers, doctors and engineers. Companies large and small, represented in the audience for our forum, continue needing to offshore their work in absence of sufficient resources here.
As Jim Clifton so clearly pointed out in Coming Jobs War, there is a marked change underway worldwide. Qualified technology workers are finding an ability to find careers overseas and no longer want to stand in line as second-class citizens in the US. Recent news reports are listed net-immigration from Mexico even to be zero, resulting in shifts even in the agricultural economies of Texas, Florida and California. People are finding opportunities elsewhere in the world, and if we are unable or unwilling to bring job-seekers here, our companies will be sending the jobs overseas.
My message to the congressional representatives and other members on the panel was clear –
- We can’t wait for comprehensive reform. To stem the outflow of jobs, we must tweak our immigration policy through bills like the HR3012 that received significant support in the house (373-15) but remain stuck in the Senate.
- Small and new businesses are the job creators. Startups, a subset of the new businesses, are the high growth leaders in wealth creation that leads to more job creators. The StartupVisa, as introduced by Kerry and Luger in 2011 needs to be addressed in Congress.
- Our colleges and universities are global leaders in education and attract students from around the world. As we graduate them and give them options to intern/train via OPT/CPT statutes, we should allow them the ability to apply for a green card and legal employment at the end of the practical training rather than subject them to 3-10 years of servitude via the H1b program. These students represent a large community of individuals who are establishing strong ties to America – we need to grow through them.
- Our schools and colleges are not graduating needed numbers of STEM fields. While we build that population up through K-12 systems over the next 20-30 years, we should make our universities and colleges attractive globally through a foreign student program as attractive as the one I used when entering this US in the 1980s.
- The DREAM Act proposes to give children of illegal immigrants a legal way to stay in the country. Whether it is the original Dream act or the modified version by Senator Marco Rubio, the purpose is the same – keep and grow with those who love and cherish America.
We do not have time for comprehensive reform, or does Congress show any willingness to bridge the divide, specially in this election year and beyond. If you have any doubts about our place in the world, pickup a copy of Jim Clifton’s Coming Jobs War or Thomas Friedman’s many tomes, including That Used to be Us.
The StartupVisa, Green card acceleration and Congress… aaarggh!
Christian and I recently submitted this post to the editors at Omaha World-Herald and the Des Moines Register in support of various bills pending in congress. I am a strong believer in immigration reform that accelerates the entry of highly skilled, technical resources to our shores and is imperative to our growth.
These initiatives have been reported on recently by Silicon Prairie News, discussed in a fair amount of detail on a recent Prairiecast and are supported, tracked and documented by the StartupVisa website.
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America’s technology industry is hungry for talent to feed our entrepreneurial spirit to drive our leadership. Our universities remain a target for students worldwide to receive higher education. Our companies continue to need qualified engineers and developers. Yet, we graduate thousands of developers and give them no path to employment here in the United States. We choose to pave a way for them to go back to their native countries when we should be stapling a green card to the very valuable diplomas we hand over. We also have several hundred-thousand skilled technology workers who arrived here on a myriad of temporary visas but are beholden to their sponsoring employers, unable to create companies – the true engines of growth – due largely to bureaucracies and delays in immigration policy.
Congress has solutions on the docket but lacks the wherewithal to act. A bill that passed the house by a vote of 389-15 (H.R. 3012) languishes in Senate as it awaits Iowa Senator Grassley’s approval before moving to the Senate floor for a vote. If approved, it stands to accelerate approvals of green card applications to over 500,000 H1b visa holders. These green cards will enable many individuals to create more high-tech companies that hire an exponentially large number of people. These startups create intellectual property so eagerly sought worldwide. It will incentivize many to stay in the US and productively contribute further to our economy rather than returning to their home countries where they can be equally accretive to job creation.
We continue to graduate students from our institutions of higher education with valuable bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees yet provide the same graduates with little to no ability to work in the country. These highly trained, motivated individuals consequently return to their home countries or countries like Canada with more relaxed immigration policy. We should incent these graduates with accelerated ability to stay in the US and create companies. Companies like Microsoft, Facebook and Google weren’t created by seasoned businessmen – they were created by skilled and hungry college students with an ability to execute on their dreams. We need thousands more such students unleashing the power of our economy.
Talented individuals still eye America’s global dominance in technology. Many would love an opportunity to create businesses in this country and hire Americans, buy and build real estate, invest in communities and become accelerators in our communities. The StartupVisa (H.R. 1114 and S 565) propose to deliver on this promise and needs Congressional support. The really good news is that this enables foreign students and workers who are already in the U.S. to qualify for a visa. The requirements for them are very reasonable—they must show that they have enough in savings not to be a burden to American taxpayers, and get a qualified investor or a government entity such as the Small Business Administration to validate their ideas by making a modest investment.
Yes, there is a risk for holders of this visa that, if their venture fails or doesn’t go anywhere, they must start again or leave the U.S. Precisely! The Startup Visa is for risk takers who are willing to build companies that rival the largest, most successful ventures and hire the brightest talent to develop products sold globally.
These initiatives in Congress are supported by many senior representatives and senators. Several in the technology industry, venture capital, education and government support these initiatives. We need support in Congress and the constituencies to recognize and deliver on these initiatives to maintain and grow our economic and technical leadership.
Our civic responsibility
As we discussed the SOPA and PIPA bills in front of the Senate and House on Silicon Prairie News‘ Prairecast today, one of the viewers liked something I said and mentioned that I should teach civics. Though meant as a compliment, I found it intriguing that someone thought my read of and commenting on a couple of bills qualified me to teach civics.
We owe it to ourselves and our future generations to read more about what is being proposed for future laws. Even more, we need to remain vigilant about what the politicians say in public, sponsor in chambers and espouse in print. No civics teacher needed in the days of Google, open government, public records laws and FOIA.