"The country's long-term security is tied to the quality of the workforce," Alfred Berkeley, a trustee of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute said.

Berkeley's testimony before NIAC cited mathematics and science as key areas that need to be addressed at all educational levels.

He stressed the importance of young adults being qualified to enter fields such as cyber security. However, Berkeley, who also serves as an NIAC member, said that current elementary education provides a poor foundation for the subsequent pursuit of these fields of study.

"The public has not embraced education as a priority. We must find a way to engage the public with a sense of urgency," Berkeley said.

Besides the problem of education quality, the United States is facing a shortage of students willing to study areas such as engineering.

According to a National Science Board (NSB) report released in 2004, "bachelor's degrees in engineering have declined by 8 percent and degrees in mathematics have dropped by about 20 percent" since 1990.

An NSB report released five years earlier noted, "Most U.S. high school students take no advanced science, with only one-quarter enrolling in physics, one-half in chemistry." The NSB also concluded in its report that "mathematics and science curricula in U.S. high schools lack coherence, depth and continuity."

Attempts by the U.S. government to recruit students with math and science training have produced mixed results. The Department of Justice created the Cyber Corps program with the goal of providing money and government job opportunities to students pursuing degrees in fields such as computer science.

In exchange, these students work for at least one year for the federal government, with the greatest demand for students with backgrounds in information technology security.

According to an NIAC report presented Tuesday's, once Cyber Corps program participants completed their undergraduate education, they were not granted security clearance in a timely manner.

This delay results in an inability of these qualified graduates to work effectively. Additionally, factors such as better pay in the private sector are discouraging the limited numbers of those with scientific or mathematical training from working for government agencies, the report said.

The report, entitled "Workforce Preparation, Education and Research Working Group," also characterized the current U.S. educational system as taking an "inch deep and mile wide" approach, one that fairs poorly against foreign competitors.

Such calls for improvements in math and science education come amidst claims that the United States is falling behind the global technological curve.

On June 29, the House Committee on Science heard testimony that the United States is losing its technological edge against nations such as China in the development of nanotechnology.

At this hearing, Sean Murdock, the executive director of the NanoBusiness Alliance, said that nanotechnology has "dramatic" national security and implications and that the United States' current policies and levels of spending are not sufficient to maintain its lead in the nanotechnology field.

Murdock also concluded that in order to maintain U.S. competitiveness in the global technology arena, the United States "must dramatically strengthen the science and technology education system."

According to Shirley Malcom, the director of education with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the calls for improving domestic science and mathematics education are long overdue.

Malcom told United Press International that such science training is necessary to cultivate the skills needed to combat biological threats and maintain the nation's cyberspace infrastructure in the wake of an attack.

"The fact that we can graduate students without foundational scientific understanding is cause for concern," Malcom told UPI.

Malcom cited "low overall levels of science and technological literacy" nationwide as creating a culture in which the pursuit of scientific study is not encouraged.

NIAC, which conducted the hearings, is a subsidiary of the Department of Homeland Security and was created by executive order to investigating ways to improve infrastructure security for both the public and private sectors.

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