It's a hobson's choice: dollars for defense or for education?

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Defense Watch

* In today's zero-sum budget world, every federal program is in a cutthroat fight for survival. Defense and education are no exception. As the largest slice of the government's discretionary spending pie, defense competes for dollars with everything else, including education.

A soldiers-or-teachers choice, however is bad national security policy. In fact, the future of the U.S. military and its global lead in high-tech weaponry depend on whether the nation makes greater investments in education.

Within the defense industry and military research-and-technology community, there are growing worries about a dwindling supply of U.S. - born graduates in math and science. They have seen a gradual slide in the availability of engineers who are qualified to work on classified projects, and cutting - edge military and space technology.

"We are very concerned about the shortage of U.S.- born engineers," said Walter F. Jones, executive director of the Office of Naval Research. "Those are the only ones we can comfortably bring into our labs," he said. "The defense industry also needs U.S. citizens."

Pouring more funds into Pentagon science projects to hire more engineers, in this case, is not going to fix the problem. In fact, some defense contractors claim that, even in today's high unemployment conditions, they have unfilled jobs that require engineering graduates that are also U.S. citizens.

Nobody yet knows how the coming budget battles will play out and how Congress will allocate $1.2 trillion in automatic spending "sequestration" cuts that are scheduled for January 2013. But industry STEM (Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics) advocates warn that expected reductions in education budgets could be detrimental to U.S. defense technology

"There are huge implications across the board," said Edward M. Swallow, chairman of the STEM Workforce division of the National Defense Industrial Association.

Much of the current STEM-related federal funding comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which provided $5 billion for the Race to the Top and Investing in Innovation funds. They are competitive grant programs that reward states for student achievement, and offer bonus points to schools that emphasize STEM education. But the ARRA coffers are about to be depleted.

"I don't see any of those programs continuing to get funded in this new budget climate, especially if sequestration happens," said Swallow.

He predicts that, in the...