Texas Physics Programs on the Chopping Block

0 Commentsby   |  09.27.11  |  Physics News

An incredibly disturbing story from Nature News reports on the implication of an announcement by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.  From the article:

…nearly half of the 24 undergraduate physics programmes at state funded universities could be on the chopping block if they fail to graduate at least 25 students every 5 years

If this goes through, we will do real and permanent damage to science education in Texas.  There are countless studies which show that science education is crucial to America’s economy.  I’ll give two specific examples:

  1. The 2008 Rising Above the Gathering Storm report
  2. The research that went into the development of the America COMPETES Act

Apparently our plan to address our economic downtown involves sitting in the middle of a storm, not competing.  To borrow a phrase, it seems kind of like cutting hospitals during a plague.

-Dr. D

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