Not by that logic. It's a safe bet that American citizens who haven't made such a promise are less likely to leave the US than are foreign PhD students who've stated their intention to stay in the US and have been cleared for a path to citizenship before they arrive, but of course are free to leave. I support public funding for both cases.
All I want is better odds they'll stay, based on the assumption that there is more supply of worthy foreign students who'd stay if they could, than demand for them. There's no good reason we shouldn't maximize the benefit to the US taxpayer, by cherry-picking the supply and paving the way to their citizenship in advance. That the PhD students do real science (i.e. a job) isn't a good enough reason to leave taxpayer money on the table.
If some foreign student is so much a wunderkind that they'll do a $million in work for their $250K outlay, but plans to leave the US, that could be an exception.
All I want is better odds they'll stay, based on the assumption that there is more supply of worthy foreign students who'd stay if they could, than demand for them. There's no good reason we shouldn't maximize the benefit to the US taxpayer, by cherry-picking the supply and paving the way to their citizenship in advance. That the PhD students do real science (i.e. a job) isn't a good enough reason to leave taxpayer money on the table.
If some foreign student is so much a wunderkind that they'll do a $million in work for their $250K outlay, but plans to leave the US, that could be an exception.