The Link Between STEM Training and Civil Rights

Securing America’s future in science, technology, engineering and math fields requires more than expanding opportunities for women. Promoting interest and opportunities for minorities also should be a national imperative, particularly as more than half of children born in the United States today are of minority descent.

That was the topic of a symposium at the National Academy of Sciences that sought to find solutions for providing minorities and women with proven pathways for obtaining good jobs and a higher standard of living through STEM education. The event, hosted by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, highlighted that now, 60 years after the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, education in the United States remains separate and unequal for many minorities, children with disabilities and those living in high-poverty areas.

STEM is one area that has great potential to reverse that trend and help the United States maintain a competitive edge, experts noted.