CNN Interview with Donna Conroy, Director
Cook County Urges H1-B Reform
One of the largest county governments in the nation voted on Tuesday to open the H-1B visa-hiring program to US citizens and legal residents – in opposition to 13 governors who earlier this week urged Congress to expand the program, without ever requiring employers to seek local talent for top-dollar, white-collar jobs. more...
::: BFJ In Print :::
NYT:"Court Orders Three H1-B Sites Disabled," Dec. 29, 2009 The routine intimidation of Indian tech workers has now been directed at American tech workers who wouldn't snitch on an Indian tech worker, threatening all Americans' free speech on the Internet.
New Jersey and Free Speech: "The action has labor rights activists, free speech activists, and even some beneficiaries of the H1-B visa program united in voicing opposition to the court decision," according to an editorial in the Oakland Journal, a local New Jersey paper.
Businessweek:"Jobs and Protectionism in the Stimulus Package," February 16, 2009 Critics of the H-1B program hailed the inclusion of the amendment as a victory. "The demand to reform corporate recruiting policies that ignore highly skilled local talent now moves center stage," says Donna Conroy, director of Brightfuturejobs.com, a lobbying group for visa reform.
Businessweek: "H-1b Visa Season is Here", March 31, 2009: On Mar. 31, Bright Future Jobs, a U.S. tech worker lobbying group, posted on its Web site 13 advertisements for jobs in which the employer designated a preference for H-1B visa workers or targeted them specifically for the positions, according to the Web site.
Businessweek:"H-1B Visa Law: Trying Again", April 24.2009: U.S. tech worker advocates praised these and other provisions in the bill. "We're thrilled that Senators Durbin and Grassley are requiring employers to seek local talent first," says Donna Conroy, executive director of Bright Future Jobs, a lobbying group for U.S. tech workers. "They recognize that American IT professionals have the talent, knowhow, and experience to push America's economic recovery into high gear."
Businessweek: "An Academic's Labor Helps Fight H-1B Visas," June 28, 2009
Anti-H-1B activists say they're worried less about academic research and more about shaping policy. "The thing that's missing in Norm Matloff's strategy is fighting for a seat at the table," says Donna Conroy, executive director of Bright Future Jobs, a lobbying group that advocates restricting the H-1B visa program. "We need a political movement that allows us to help craft legislation. All the numbers [Matloff] crunches won't have nearly the impact as American technical professionals standing up for themselves."
CIO MAGAZINE: "H-1b Reform Bill Could Complicate Offshore Outsourcing,"
Many rank-and-file IT professionals laud the legislation. "The Durbin bill will put a stop to the outsourcing of American jobs and the discrimination against American IT professionals," says Donna Conroy, a former IT professional and director of Bright Future Jobs, a grassroots lobbying group for American IT workers. "This bill was written for us."
First it was black graduates busting the myth that they couldn't cut it in computer science. Now it's US schoolchildren busting the myth that they can't cut it in math, algebra and geometry.
A prestigious international math and science exam taken by a sampling of schoolchildren in 48 countries revealed that US children made significant gains in math. US 4th graders improved by 11 points and 8th graders improved by 16 points, compared to math scores from 1995 testing.
But it's the performance of Massachusetts, with a minority school age population similar to the nation's - 8% black and 14% Hispanic - that public school advocates may want to emulate. Both Massachusetts and Minnesota are in the same league"with academic heavyweights that have long made US policy-makers fearful of losing an economic competitive edge.
"Could the American public not be far behind in shedding the belief that we are incompetent and incapable in science and techology?
Two reporters alluded to this misconception amongst Americans in their coverage of the results of the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS).
"American schoolchildren do better than people think in math and science...
The findings contradict a persistent view in the United States that its children are lagging behind the rest of the developed world. An AP poll in June found that nearly two in five people believe American students do worse on math and science tests than those in most of the developed countries.
Not true, the authors of the report said."
Here's technology news source TG Daily's lead sentence:
"It is a common stigma that students in foreign countries are significantly smarter in math and science than students in the United States, however, that isn’t exactly true."
Not surprising, considering they covered a RAND study reporting that the US still leads the world in science and technology:
Some people think the USA is going down the tubes in respects to science and technology, but that simply isn’t true according to a new study by the non-profit RAND Corporation. The country outspends the world in research and development and employs most of the world’s Nobel Prize winners. Furthermore, three-fourths of the world’s Top 40 Universities are in the United States.
"Much of the concern about the United States losing its edge as the world's leader in science and technology appears to be unfounded," said Titus Galama, co-author of the report and a scientist at RAND.
