It’s the jumper cables to America’s dead battery, they say, the lighter fluid to a cooling economy, the Tampa Bay Times reports. STEM education — science, technology, engineering and math — is being touted by lawmakers and business people as the key to future job creation and international competitiveness. In Florida, the pressure is on to push more kids into STEM. This session, lawmakers are considering a bill that would reward schools when students graduate with more math and science credits than currently required. But as campuses move to aggressively bulk up their STEM programs, they are grappling with a perpetual question in K-12 education: How to pay for it?