Dear President Obama,
Congratulations on your reelection! I understand that you have a lot of things on your plate right now, especially with the fiscal cliff. However, I would like to propose a solution to consider for the unemployment issue, especially with 50% of recent college graduates being either underemployed or even unemployed.
An article on the Huffington Post came to my attention about the STEM Act. As I understand, this would “increase visas for foreign nationals who earn advanced degrees in the U.S. for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.” It is true that many vacancies in science, engineering, mathematics, and computer programming need to be filled, and that we have a lack of American employees with the abilities to do these skills, so we need to import competent foreign workers to fill these positions instead. This got me thinking: why not invest into training these skills to American citizens?
Here is my suggestion: instead of continuing to rely on filling vacant STEM positions with foreign employees for jobs that Americans are under qualified for, why not focus on investing into making our citizens more qualified instead? Suggest a law that would provide extra grants or scholarships or/and partially forgive loan repayments for graduates who major in the STEM sciences, and who are already American citizens. This would give a financial incentive for future American students to pursue careers in these fields. When they graduate, they will become qualified to take the very positions that we currently rely on hiring foreign employees for. Instead of having our students pursue skills that have many more graduates than job openings (such as in the humanities, or arts, for example), find a way to encourage future students to pursue STEM degrees. Not only would more of them get hired, at decent salaries, but unemployment and underemployment would fall, especially with many of the Baby Boomers about to retire.
Financing scholarships or partial loan forgiveness, of course, would be an issue. To resolve this, I propose using VISA fees already paid by foreign students and green cards and work VISA fees paid by companies to be set aside funds to finance such a program. Additionally, corporations and businesses dealing with STEM-related careers may want to also provide money (possibly as tax-free charity) to invest into training their future employees (while avoiding paying for work VISAS in the future). Of course, you could also use some of the revenue generated from tax hikes for those making over $250K, as well as your proposed increase in the Capital Gains Tax from 15% to 20%, to invest into such a venture.
Mr. President, if you truly want to tackle the unemployment rate, especially among college graduates, I believe that such a suggestion is possible worth pursuing. As more American citizens gain STEM skills, more will find well-paying jobs. Employees could save money by not paying for work VISAS, and instead use this revenue to increase the salaries of their employees or to invest into training future hires. Unemployment would fall, and this would help in improving the economy.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Gary Gorny
