Tech CEOs call for better U.S. education, broadband

For the U.S. to stay competitive, the government needs to put more money into education programs and eliminate regulations that slow broadband adoption, TechNet, an advocacy group made up of technology chief executives, said Tuesday.

The group also called for national rules more friendly to stock options and more federal funding for technology research and development in its Innovation Policy Agenda, released at a Washington, D.C., press conference.

Three tech executives at the press conference stayed away from criticizing President George Bush or the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress, but said the U.S. government is falling short in funding of programs such as Bush's No Child Left Behind education initiative. The program, intended to hold schools to higher standards and increase student test scores, was one of Bush's major initiatives during his first four years in office, but critics have complained that it's never been fully funded.

Bush's budget for fiscal year 2005 included US$24.9 billion for the program, $9.4 billion below the amount originally authorized for No Child Left Behind.

Between the fourth and eighth grades, the U.S. education system seems to fall behind other industrialized nations, said John Chambers, president and chief executive officer of Cisco Systems Inc. "We're beginning to see our global competitors close on us," he said. "While we have made major improvements in terms of focus on No Child Left Behind and other programs ... we have to realistic, we are not competitive."

TechNet announced Tuesday it was forming an education task force. The task force will not only focus on ways government can better support education, but also on ways tech companies can help to improve education, said John Doerr, a partner with Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm.

The group also pressed for increases in federal research and development (R&D) funding, saying the federal R&D budget has been flat for the last 30 years. TechNet called for Congress to pass a permanent extension to an R&D tax credit that's been renewed multiple times since 1981.

"Our competitive countries -- Brazil, India, China, Israel -- their research and development has grown dramatically," said Bob Greifeld, chief executive officer of Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. "Unless we take steps now to increase our national commitment to research and development, we will not win the global competitive challenge in the decades to come."

Bush's proposed federal R&D budget for fiscal year 2006, a total of $132.3 billion, would increase by less 1 percent. John Marburger, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has defended the Bush R&D budget as responsible given a federal budget deficit that was $412 billion in fiscal year 2004.

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

• Email
• Print
• Share
  • Slashdot
  • Digg
  • Stumble
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine