[wludavid]

The article was an opinion piece. True, it's a fact that those were the writer's opinions, but it's still editorial.

The author does seem to get it when he says, "heck I know nothing of these subjects, so I can believe that there is a shortage!" But he misses the point. The very idea that it's okay to be afraid of numbers is rampant even among otherwise smart people. In college (a liberal arts school, fwiw) students were requred to take 5 PE classes, 4 semesters of foreighn language, and 2 semesters of literature, but only required to take Calc 1 and one semester of some lamed-up lab science. (Physics for non-majors aka Physics for *****ups was a favorite.)

The standards for math and science in this country are pathetically low. People who run the damn country - lawyers, MBAs, and some MDs don't even understand the difference between a scientific theory and hypothesis. Virtually no one you picked off the street randomly could explain what an integral is. Calculus is seen as High Math, when in fact it's not much more than glorified arithmetic.

It doesn't matter if there is a shortage or not. We should be raising the bar for education's sake, not because of some economic phantom.