Recently, President Obama urged efforts to enhance Math and Science education. I am glad that powerful and inspiring people like him are trying to encourage people to take more interest in Math and Science. If you are not aware of the story, here is a quick summary:

The White House has launched a campaign to improve math and science education in the United States. President Barack Obama said, “It is about the ability to understand our world, to harness and train that human capacity to solve problems and think critically – a set of skills that informs the decisions we make throughout our lives. The initial commitment of the private sector to this campaign is more than $260 million.” Later, he said that students from many other countries are outperforming the United States, and his goal is to put America back on top within a decade.

As I mentioned before, I am glad that someone as powerful and inspiring as him is taking the education efforts seriously. However, I do want to highlight two questions:

1. $260 million doesn’t sound like a lot of money in the world of trillion dollar bailouts, defense expenditures and health-care costs. With all the cuts that schools are facing due to poor financial situation of most states (Look at the cost-cutting taking place in California), how much relief will this $260 million bring? I hope the private sector will increase its involvement many folds in the next few years.

2. Why is Mr. President trying to make education in Math and Science seem like a competition with other countries? In my personal opinion, he should stay with highlighting the benefits that education brings to an individual and her society. We should encourage our children to learn for their own benefit, not so that United States can outperform other countries.