Subject: LA Times Letter to Editor
re: MESA & Outreach Los Angeles Times Letter to the Editor 12/18/03
How Student Outreach Funding Benefits Us All
December 18, 2003
Re "College Prep Programs in Peril," Dec. 10: Budget cuts to outreach programs are penny-wise and pound-foolish. Isn't that money well spent if it's used to academically prepare educationally disadvantaged students for college? As graduates, they will be armed with greater buying power and greater taxpaying potential.
MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) is one of the programs slated for elimination. The number of science and engineering jobs is expected to triple. Yet fewer Americans are choosing to become engineers and scientists. MESA graduates help fill this gap. It also provides industry with an even-scarcer commodity — a workforce pool that resembles the communities we serve.
Some 200 companies, including my own, have supported MESA over three decades with internships and scholarships, special resources and in-kind donations. Through the years, companies have developed a solid partnership with the state and all segments of education to support MESA and other outreach programs. We can't afford for this collaboration to be dismantled.
David M. Morse
CEO, ESP Networks
Yorba Linda