U.S. education is overpowered by competing countries, Western President Bruce Shepard said after participating in a year-long study conducted by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). Shepard is the chair of the association's Presidential Leadership and Global Competitiveness Commission.

Shepard sat down with The Western Front to discuss the study's findings.

The Western Front: Why is it important for the U.S. educational system to bridge the competitive gap between itself and the rest of the world?

Bruce Shepard: Global corporations are hiring whomever they want from all over the world.

WF: How did the U.S. fall so far behind?

BS: It’s today’s society. It’s the people who are making investments right now. There is rapid disinvestment in the public higher education. K-12 is doing a little better, but data shows that investments [in public education] are really stagnant.
Something else I worry about is that the young people coming along from families where moms and dads have not gone to college and do not have the aspirations to get more education. So it is also that aspirational effort. That is why this Compass 2 Campus program is important. It is really focused on aspiration.

WF: The [AASCU] report says  math and science degrees are declining in the U.S. What can we do to encourage students to major in these subjects?

BS: We are doing some exciting things through Woodring. These are programs that Pinky Nelson has developed that really demonstrate by preparing science and mathematics teachers in certain ways—their students perform better and show more interest.
This Compass 2 Campus, we had so many students that got jazzed about science. I remember one young fellow. I asked him what he liked most; he said he really liked biology. I don’t even know if I knew the word biology in fifth grade. I said well what was it and he said ‘I got to put my hands in with all these sea anemones and see all these sea animals.’ It was our Shannon Point exhibit.
That is the sort of thing that I think we can work off of the Compass 2 Campus will feed in well.
WF: The [AASCU] report indicates a need for schools in the U.S. to obtain greater “international literacy.” What can Western do to become more internationally literate?

BS: A benefit of diversity is to enhance everybody’s education. So we could offer scholarships to bring international students here, but the conditions of that would be, A: You could not room with another international student, you need to have a domestic student as a roommate, and B: You need to agree to give [approximately] four talks a year on campus or in K-12 schools, or things like that.
The challenges for Western students are to find exchange programs that are financially feasible. A part of that is private fundraising. We will be announcing pretty soon a major funding campaign.  I’m sure it will have as part of it finding scholarship support for our students and I hope an important part of that is for international experience.

WF: Would you say U.S. education is simply declining, or are foreign education systems progressing?

BS: When I was a college student, international students were coming from all over the world.Today’s world is very different. Because of this competition for talent, people understand that society’s well-being depends on the talent of its people. After 9-11 it became very hard for international students to come to The United States. Where we used to have a monopoly, we are now really having to compete for international students. It is just more competitive.

WF: So has the value of an education attained in the U.S. declined?

BS: I think we have to worry about maintaining that competitive edge right now. The cache of the American diploma is still very positive, but there has to be substance there too because other countries are not holding back. China, India they are all investing heavily in their education systems.

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