{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://yoho.house.gov//media-center/in-the-news/yoho-educators-business-leaders-talk-stem-growth", "Yoho, educators, business leaders talk STEM growth", "2014-12-15", "2014", "2014-12", "Republican", "House", "FL", "Ted Yoho", "Y000065", "yoho.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "If the United States wants its students to succeed in highly skilled careers, it needs to change the way it teaches them, an expert told a local education-minded group Monday.\nAbout 40 educators, business leaders and other professionals met at the Santa Fe College Perry Center for Emerging Technologies in Alachua to talk about education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and why it\u2019s important.\nOther countries are fast outstripping the United States in STEM fields, said U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, who coordinated the seminar with Cindy Moss, director of global STEM initiatives for Discovery Education.\n\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a decline in our competitiveness, and it\u2019s not acceptable,\u201d Yoho said.\nThe percentage of innovations produced by the U.S. has dipped significantly over the past several decades, due in part, Yoho said, to high corporate tax rates and federal regulations.\nBut it\u2019s also because we\u2019re not pushing STEM hard enough, he said.\nSTEM is different things to different people, Moss said, but it needs to be involved with every student at every level.\nAccording to a report by Change the Equation, a nonprofit organization focusing on improving STEM learning, students in every state in the country get less science instruction compared with 20 years ago.\nOnly 1 percent of college graduates earned science degrees, and 0.1 percent earned math degrees, Moss said, adding that 84 percent of students who drop out of high school say they quit because they couldn\u2019t pass Algebra 1.\n\u201cWe have to show kids the cool things you can do with math,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not sitting down and solving problems all day.\u201d\nEngaging kids early with hands-on learning and problem-solving is key, she said, particularly for girls.\nIn the U.S., on average, women earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn at work.\nBut in STEM fields, Moss said women earn 95 cents on the dollar or more.\nThe reason STEM isn\u2019t attracting women and other underrepresented groups is lack of exposure, Moss said.\nTo fix the problem, the whole community needs to get on board with the STEM mission -- schools, science and technology companies and other stakeholders.\nThe school district already is using inquiry-based learning and participating in other STEM-centric events such as the Hour of Code and regional and international science fairs.\nRecently, Superintendent Owen Roberts announced a plan to incorporate robotics clubs into all of the public schools starting in the fall.\nKaren Clarke, assistant superintendent for curriculum, attended Monday\u2019s seminar and said while the district is already aware of many of the themes Moss spoke about, it was useful to see how local business leaders might be able to lend a hand financially.\nThe overhead for starting a robotics team could run the district $10,000 to $20,000 per school, Clarke said, so knowing where the allies are is valuable.\n\u201cIt does take all of us to make a program like that work,\u201d she said.\nYoho said he\u2019s planning another STEM seminar for the spring.\nContact Erin Jester at 338-3166 or erin.jester@gainesville.com.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://yoho.house.gov//media-center/in-the-news/yoho-educators-business-leaders-talk-stem-growth"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6617829203605652, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}