I read an article this last week in Education Week titled "How Schools Are Putting Equity First in Math Instruction".
The article talks about how success in math education is still very divided along the lines of race, gender, income level, etc. All the usual culprits that have made the math classroom an inequitable place. It goes on to discuss how this has historically disadvantaged the U.S. because, as a whole, we lag behind most other developed countries in math education. Now, with people being increasingly dependent on technology that takes a high level of math to understand, we should be using all our resources to keep up with the rest of the world. That includes giving all students an equal opportunity to learn and succeed at math.
As Carl Sagan put we it, "We've arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces."
I think he was right about that. And I think one way to prevent it is to open up the search for the next STEM genius to include everyone by gearing math education away from white males and making it more culturally responsive.