When Mark White was the governor of Texas, he called for a renewed commitment to make America more competitive in high-skill jobs.

White often said that as a nation we wouldn't get ahead if all Americans were prepared to do was flip burgers for each other.

More than 20 years have passed since White was governor, but his message still rings true. And it is more urgent than ever.

American business leaders sounded the alarm in an organized fashion three years ago when 16 groups, led by the Business Roundtable, launched the Tapping America's Potential initiative.

Announced in July 2005, the initiative's goal is “doubling the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates with bachelor's degrees by 2015.”

At that time the U.S. was producing about 200,000 so-called STEM graduates annually, and the business leaders saw that the number was inadequate if the United States hoped to remain an innovative leader and competitive in key research-based fields.

This summer, TAP initiative leaders released a progress report, and the results were unsatisfactory. The number of graduates has remained flat.

Progress has been made, but the federal funding needed to drive research and boost incentives for these highly desirable graduates remains inadequate.

TAP leaders got the attention of federal policy makers, the report noted. Then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and President Bush pushed legislative efforts that evolved into the America COMPETES Act, which was designed to address the problem from the K-12 level, in American universities and at the research level.

And states, including Texas, have increased the requirements for a rigorous math and science curriculum.

But three years later, the progress report noted, federal funding has not matched the rhetoric.

“Instead, appropriations provided either flat funding or real declines in fiscal year 2008, in constant dollars terms, for research and education programs,” the TAP report stated.

Meanwhile, American students continue to be below those of many other nations in math and science literacy, the report documented.

The emphasis on math and science is crucial for the U.S. economy and quality of life. STEM graduates have a much lower unemployment rate than the nation's overall pool of workers and are needed by employers. But more important, innovations such as the MRI and GPS are the result of federally funded-research conducted by skilled people, the TAP report noted.

An adequate supply of skilled graduates also has a major impact on national security.

“The U.S. defense and homeland security industries face challenges in filling some of the best and most critical technical jobs in our country because the U.S. is not producing enough graduates trained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics who qualify for security clearances,” Lawrence P. Farrell Jr., CEO of the National Defense Industrial Association, said in a statement that accompanied the release of the TAP progress report.

The bottom line is that Americans can show their patriotism and commitment to national progress by embracing a rigorous academic load for their children.

And while Congress is busy dumping billions of dollars into earmarks, lawmakers should put a healthy allotment of funding into innovative research and efforts to help states fund necessary increases in math and science teachers.

A renewed commitment to math, science and innovation should be a key part of the campaign platforms this election year. Few policy initiatives will bring more benefit to the nation as a whole.