According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least 15 states offer some type of bonus for certain high-demand college degrees. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
A typical view is that expressed by Matt Bevin, the new Republican governor of Kentucky, who said, “There will be more incentives to electrical engineers than French literature majors, there just will.”
Liberal arts degrees (political science is one) are seen as a waste of taxpayers’ money. Rubio has said we need more welders and fewer philosophers.
I suppose I’m a poster child for the waste of tax dollars. I had an assistantship the entire time I was in Penn State grad school An assistantship means you do some sort of work, like being a teaching assistant, but it could be argued that giving me one resulted in denying some poor engineering student.
What I think the Republicans are really concerned about is that sociologists, political scientists, anthologists, and yes, French lit majors, tend to be liberals. Engineers tend to be Republicans. I think I know why.
We also learn to credit our sources. The Bevin quote was found in Patricia Cohen’s “A Rising Call to Foster STEM Fields, and Decrease Liberal Arts Funding,” New York Times, Feb. 22, 2016, p. B-1.
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