"David Plotz has kicked off a big project dedicated to fixing the problem that we don't have enough scientists and engineers in this country. He wants to stop the fact that we're suffering from a lack of qualified STEM students graduating from our colleges. There's just one problem: that is absolutely untrue. The basic premise of this grand project of his is simply not correct." - Andrew C (✓) from Bookmarklet

[citing Congressional testimony] "At present, "there are too many skilled workers chasing too few jobs." Focusing specifically on computer and mathematical occupations, "a field where Mr. Smith argues there's a shortage of workers," Hira also finds "unemployment rates...much higher than we would expect at full-employment." These two fields, which constitute "the largest of all STEM occupations," suffered "unemployment rates of 5.2% in 2009 and 2010,...more than twice the levels at full-employment" based on historical data. In fact, in 2010, the unemployment rate for computer and mathematical workers exceeded that of all college graduates by half a percentage point." - Andrew C (✓)

"I hope you can see why I bang my head against a wall with this stuff. Here you have a prominent, professional journalist who is advancing a claim with major consequences for our public policy--for the economy, for education, for politics and policy. And he doesn't just get his basic premise wrong. He seems to show no interest in the idea that he needs to defend that premise with evidence. What he has is a narrative and sensationalism and the desire to get pageviews through the use of terms like "crisis." " - Andrew C (✓)