With half of our science and tech Ph.D.s going to foreign students, it's time to support legislation that makes it easier for them to stay in America and work

Ryan Streeter
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Here's an amazing fact that doesn't get as much attention as it should:

"Foreign-born students received 42 percent of U.S. engineering master's and 53 percent of U.S. engineering Ph.D.s nationwide in the 2009-2010 academic year."

This is from Compete America, and has a map along with it to help you see how this plays out state by state:

Jeff Flake used this data to issue a call for passage of the STAPLE Act, "which would exempt foreign students who have earned a Ph.D. in the U.S. in science, technology, engineering, and math and have a U.S. job offer from caps on green cards and H1-B visas."

Flake issued this statement:

Unless our visa policy is adjusted to allow foreign-born, U.S.-educated students to remain and work in the country after they’ve graduated, we’re going to continue to see our technology industry move overseas. Why should we let the next Google be developed abroad when U.S. universities are educating the people who will create it?

Makes a lot of sense to me.