The United States, for the first time in several decades, will soon fall behind other countries in terms of the dollars invested in research and development. This includes research and development across all industries, including, perhaps most notably, technology as well as education.

As the Groza Learning Center has repeatedly pointed out when discussing its approach to education, the innovative strategies they have implemented to such an impressive degree of success stem from a continued commitment to research and development. Even though the government of the United States has become increasingly known for its partisan divides and general inability to reach almost any agreement that extends across the political aisle, the issue of continued investment in research and development is one of the few that can be legitimately referred to as entirely bipartisan.

If there is any argument to be made against increased investment in government research and development, it is that the private sectoris more than capable of driving innovation without requiring vast amounts of taxpayer dollars to do so.Some calling for a reduction in government spending on technological research and development might even make reference to the many impressive technologies that have come out of the private sector in recent years, citing, perhaps, the iPhone as an example. A supporter of continued and robust government investment would easily counter that argument by noting that most of the technology undergirding the iPhone — GPS, computer networking, microchips and Siri, for example — were all the direct result of government research and development.