Congress should act on immigration reform to support future workforce

This week almost a million students returned to class in Minnesota to kick off the 2013-2014 school year.

Meanwhile, their parents have prepared for school, amassing everything from lunch boxes to notebooks to calculators. While we’re familiar with the essential tools kids need to be successful in school, the job of our schools is to get students the skills they need to be successful in their careers.  But are we giving the schools the resources they need to do the most important part of that job?

Surprisingly, immigration reform legislation currently under consideration in Congress could play an important role in boosting our state education system and our economy.  Representative John Kline as the Chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, could play an important role.

Overall, immigration reform is projected to create 3.2 million jobs over 10 years and reduce the deficit by $2.7 trillion over the same time frame.  In Minnesota, immigration reform would produce an estimated 3,800 new high-skilled jobs by 2014.

More specific to education, Congress also will have an opportunity to help address the challenge of producing the science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) trained students our fastest growing job sectors will increasingly demand here in Eagan, in Minnesota and across the country.   Within both Senate and House immigration legislation are provisions that could, if adopted, strengthen STEM education efforts and help close our national skills gap.

Considering the continued rapid growth of high-skill jobs in the U.S., there is substantial cause for concern in the performance of American students in math and science. According to a 2011 Harvard study, just 32 percent of students in the U.S. were proficient in math with the U.S. ranking 32nd among 65 industrialized nations.  Students in Shanghai, Korea and Finland outpaced the U.S. with 75, 58 and 56 percent of students, respectively, demonstrating math proficiency.

Jobs in STEM fields will total more than 8.6 million by 2018, according to analysis from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and 188,000 of those jobs will be in Minnesota. Today, even with unemployment at 7.6 percent, thousands of American companies have difficulty filling their high-skilled jobs with qualified engineers, computer scientists and mathematicians.  These vacancies are slowing the growth of local economies today and unaddressed could undermine our ability to be more competitive globally.

Each high-skilled job creates and supports as many as five additional jobs.  Thomson Reuters, in our community, is one key example and nationally companies like Microsoft will continue to create demand for a high-skill STEM prepared workforce and have ripple effects throughout the local economies where they locate.  Each vacancy in a high-skilled and high paying position has effects beyond the specific company and into the vibrancy of the community writ large.

The need for a solution couldn’t be clearer or more pressing. 

The immigration reform legislation that passed the Senate would increase the cap on H-1B visas for foreign workers. Raising the cap would help companies fill positions in the near term. The additional funds employers would pay for these visas would be put into a national STEM fund dedicated to helping prepare more Americans to fill these STEM and computer jobs of the future. The SKILLS Visa Act in the House has similar provisions and strongly encourages a national STEM education fund to help ensure that our nation is training enough American students to fill the anticipated growth of high-skill jobs.

The STEM fund would be the only federal funding stream dedicated to strengthening STEM education programs and help to create the workforce Minnesota and Eagan businesses are projected to need in increasing numbers. 

While STEM jobs are growing faster than non-STEM jobs, bachelor’s degrees in non-STEM fields are far outpacing the percentage of bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields. We simply are not producing enough people trained in the fields that have the highest demand.

STEM occupations will grow by an estimated 17 percent from 2009 through 2018, much faster than the growth of non-STEM jobs (9.8 percent.)  And at our current pace, the U.S. will not produce even half the number of graduates needed to fill these positions.

Our students are more than capable, but there needs to be a sharper focus on ensuring more of them pursue careers in STEM fields and that our schools are able to support them.  A national STEM fund allows states like Minnesota to make a critically important investment.

While Representative Kline and our congressional leaders continue to debate immigration reform, we need to be sure they understand the widespread support for strengthening STEM education and our economy, especially among Minnesota businesses. 

The students returning to class this year and our communities deserve nothing less.