Obama seeks more funds for science, maths education

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama proposed a more than 6 percent increase in spending on education, apparently to face increasing competition from India and China, as he sent Congress a record $3.8 trillion budget for 2011.

“This funding is tied to reforms that raise student achievement, inspire students to excel in math and science,” Obama said at a White House presentation Monday. “In the 21st century there is no better anti-poverty programme than a world-class education.”

Obama did not name India or China in his remarks Monday, but in his first State of the Union speech last week he had clearly asked the US to gear up lest the two emerging Asian giants overtake it, thanks to their emphasis on science and maths.

“China’s not waiting to revamp its economy. Germany’s not waiting. India’s not waiting,” he then told the US Congress. “These nations aren’t standing still. These nations aren’t playing for second place. They’re putting more emphasis on math and science…”

The President Monday also suggested steps to make college more affordable to “reach the goal I’ve set for America: By 2020 we will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.”

“Just as it would be a terrible mistake to borrow against our children’s future to pay our way today, it would be equally wrong to neglect their future by failing to invest in areas that will determine our economic success in this new century,” he said.

But “We simply cannot continue to spend as if deficits don’t have consequences, as if waste doesn’t matter,” Obama said as he presented a $1.56 trillion deficit budget, the third in a row with a deficit of more than $1 trillion.

“It’s time to save what we can, spend what we must and live within our means once again,” he said as he proposed to boost funding for wars in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq while trimming spending at home.

While putting almost $30 billion more into the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the federal budget also includes a $100-billion jobs package, more education spending and higher taxes on families earning more than $250,000 a year.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in )