Politics, not schools are ruining the US competitive edge in technology.

Wherever we go we hear that the government is committed to maintaining the US competitive edge in technology.  However, when you look behind the curtain, short sighted politics are always lurking.  For example, the H-1B visa program, which dates back to the 1990s, has served to allow technology companies to hire up to 65,000 foreign workers (in 2013) at wages lower than American workers would normally accept.  So, rather than attract the best and brightest of foreign scientists and engineers, we are scrounging the bottom looking for workers who will agree to low enough wages to boost the tech industry’s bottom line.

The result has been mediocre foreign nationals helping to keep US wages artificially low.  What was once an opportunity to assist US companies filling a demand has devolved into a process to temporarily boost company profits.  This all comes at the expense of training US workers or failing to bring the best and brightest foreigners to the US.  Instead we bring the incompetent and mediocre workers who  fill American positions and keep wages lower.  This is no way to keep America competitive.

Source:

June 10, 2013, Barron’s Where are the “Best and Brightest”? by Norm Matloff