[rich2202]

The article is mixing two different issues: 1) How many technicians are being educated; and 2) The average knowledge of STEM subjects.

The latter is the average performance of students in math/science tests. The former is the number of graduates of STEM fields.

The question of "focus on STEM" education is similar. Do you teach everyone to be better at STEM, or do you create more STEM workers?

The article implied the USA does not need to raise the general level of STEM knowledge. That is a separate issue from whether the USA needs more STEM workers.

If you look at Graduation Rates as Graduate/Job, there is a higher ratio of Graduates Per Humanities Job than there is Graduates per STEM job. Thus, the Higher Education System needs to focus more effort into graduating more STEM majors than Humanities majors.

That is not to say that Humanities (as knowledge) is not valuable ("Companies often prefer strong basics to narrow expertise."). Many STEM programs require a certain component of Humanities classes. It would be nice if STEM majors could write like Hawthorne, but, in general, that is not there forte. Just as, we don't expect Humanities majors to be able to do physics like Hawking. What a student needs is "strong basics" and a marketable skill (some type of expertise). Just be careful about what you define as "basics".

Note: There is an argument whether the USA really does have a STEM Graduate deficiency. Whether we do or not, there is much more excess in non-STEM fields than there is in STEM fields.