In his State of the Union address last week, President Bush pledged to greatly increase the number of teachers qualified to teach Advanced Placement (AP) courses in mathematics and science, because of the evidence that the youth of this nation have fallen behind their counterparts in other countries. “If we insure that American children succeed in life,” the president observed, “they will insure that America succeeds in the world.”

In a recent interview about this crisis in American education, Manning said, “Math and science education is absolutely vital to the future of this country. We find that we are lagging behind much of the world in math and science, and we here at the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics are committed to doing our part to change that, and to put America back in a leadership role in those fields.”