One of America’s most important entrepreneurs recently gave a remarkable speech at a summit meeting of our nation’s governors. Bill Gates minced no words. “American high schools are obsolete,” he told the governors. “By obsolete, I don’t just mean that our high schools are broken, flawed and underfunded. … By obsolete, I mean that our high schools – even when they are working exactly as designed – cannot teach our kids what they need to know today.
“Training the work force of tomorrow with the high schools of today is like trying to teach kids about today’s computers on a 50-year-old mainframe. … Our high schools were designed 50 years ago to meet the needs of another age. Until we design them to meet the needs of the 21st century, we will keep limiting – even ruining – the lives of millions of Americans every year.” [‘What, Me Worry?’]
Bill Gates thinks a cap on H1-B is a bad thing for United States, as more smart people is needed here and the American education system is not able to produce enough of them. With sufficient lobbying H1-B cap can always be increased and more and more engineers can be imported, even though many of them now prefer to stay back. This will solve the problem for now in hi-tech field.
Many defence contractors are now facing the problem of baby boomers retiring and not being able to find their replacements. To work in defence companies you need to be an American Citizen with clearance. H1-B’s do not qualify for that and such jobs cannot be outsourced. So the solution in the long run for the security of America as a nation is to strengthen its education system and get to a point where being a geek is considered “cool”.
