not the corporate sponsorship. are US chip companies paying to send 18 year old US kids to engineering school? are Chinese ones doing it? they are.
sure, alot of americans are dumb. so what, we don't need EVERY american to be capable of getting an engineering degree. Do we have enough smart high school graduates to fill these slots? of course we do, we always did, and we do now. what's driving them out of these programs are the employment and career opportunities they have when they graduate.
the proof is in the pudding. talk to some parents currently employed in engineering, and ask them where they are steering their college bound kids to. what do they know, what do they see at work everyday?
Funny that you mention it . . . the parents I know who are engineers are steering their kids into engineering. EE especially, since all the EE's they and I know are rolling in cash.