Intellectual Property Law

While much of the final presidential debate of 2008 focused on how the candidates' tax and healthcare policies would affect aspiring small business owners like "Joe the Plumber," one of the most important questions of the evening touched upon the issue of science and math competence among American students.

Debate moderator Bob Schieffer noted that though the United States spends more per capita on education than any other country in the world, math and science competence among students up to the 12th grade lags most of their peers' competence in the rest of the world. He wondered what the candidates would do about it.

Both the seated candidates segued into general education policy prescriptions during the 90-minute debate at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York, on Wednesday night. Generally, Barack Obama wants to invest more money into the system, at the same time as reforming it. John McCain wants to overhaul the entire system and bring more competition into the market for schools.

But both of the candidates had actually previously answered the question late this summer when they responded to questions about science and innovation policy from a group called Science Debate 2008.

McCain's answer on Wednesday night was consistent with the one he provided to the organizers. In a questionnaire, McCain said that he wanted to boost innovation in the United States by growing "public understanding and popularity of mathematics and science by reforming mathematics and science education in schools."

Obama, for his part, provided a more detailed suggestion. Among other things, he proposed to create incentives to bring more teachers into the system by providing scholarships and grants to undergraduate and graduate students who commit to teach at high-schools. He says that he would prioritize math and science teachers. 

Schools and reform are one thing. But what about boosting science as something of interest in everyday pop culture as a way to heighten interest and competence in the subject? In McCain's view, that's a waste of money.

During the Wednesday night debate, McCain once again brought up the issue of the $3 million "projector" that Obama asked appropriators for in 2007 as an example of an egregious earmark request. The "projector," it turns out, is Chicago's Adler Planetarium Sky Theater Projector, which is a complex piece of equipment used for public education purposes, and it was in severe need of an upgrade.

Obama never managed to land the money for the planetarium. But that's beside the point.

Numerous scientists, most notably the late Stephen Jay Gould, have said that it was public outings with the family to science museums as children that inspired them to go into the field.

After McCain made the same comment during the previous debate, the Adler Planetarium's chief Paul  Knappenberger noted that the theater presents "an inspiring opportunity to get students interested in science, interested in math."

More detail on the response from Knappenberger to McCain's pork comment is available here.