Elementary science students no longer learn from one thick textbook and random experiments. Instead, science incorporates more writing, reading and English language arts into the curriculum... Science education changed for two reasons. The No Child Left Behind Act signed in 2002 made English language skills a top priority, leaving less classroom time for traditional science instruction. And state science tests, which fourth-grade students begin taking this month, require students to interpret stories and write narratives on science topics, such as atoms, dinosaurs and ecosystems, and answer multiple choice and essay questions.

This briefing paper focuses on two key policy mechanisms for high-skill labor mobility and immigration, the H-1B and the L-1 guest worker visas.1 In practice these programs not only fail to meet their policy goals, they actually work against them. And more importantly, the vast expansion of the H-1B program passed by the U.S. Senate last year will make the programs even more harmful. If these H-1B provisions were to be signed into law, the consequences are obvious: they would directly lead to more offshore outsourcing of jobs, displacement of American technology workers, decreased wages and job opportunities for those same workers, and the discouragement of young people from entering science and engineering fields.