Mathematicians: China Rises as World’s STEM Leader While American Schools Place Diversity First

Three career academic math scholars gave a stern warning about the “deplorable” state of K-12 math education in the United States as schools prioritize social justice and diversity over merit, thereby allowing China to successfully advance as the world’s leader in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Percy Deift of New York University, Svetlana Jitomirskaya of Georgia Institute of Technology and University of California Irvine, and Sergiu Klainerman of Princeton University – all academic math scholars who arrived in the United States as young immigrants – wrote at Quillette in August of their concern that the nation they are “proud” to call their home is quickly losing its “dominant position” in the mathematical sciences.

Keeping in mind China’s “status as an authoritarian country,” the mathematicians warned Americans:

The drawbacks of American education policies are so pronounced that US schools are now losing their ability to attract elite scholars despite the fact that the United States offers these academics a freer and more democratic environment.

The authors cited several reasons for what they view as the devastating decline of America in mathematical scholarship.

First, the state of math in K-12 public schools has resulted in few American children who are prepared for STEM careers, they explained.

“This leaves us increasingly dependent on a constant inflow of foreign talent, especially from mainland China, Taiwan, South Korea, and India,” the math scholars wrote, noting a 2015 survey, conducted by the Council of Graduate Schools and the Graduate Record Examinations Board, that found about 55 percent of all participating graduate students in mathematics, computer sciences, and engineering at American schools were found to be non-U.S citizens.

Similarly, the writers’ observed, the National Foundation for American Policy estimated in 2017 that 81 percent of full-time graduate students in electrical engineering at American schools were international students, as were 79 percent of full-time computer science...

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