Memo to Sens. McCain and Obama: Big wigs at Fortune 1000 companies are worried that there aren’t going to be enough engineers, researchers, scientists and other professionals to keep the U.S. competitive.

A survey of senior executives at some of the nation’s largest chemical pharmaceutical, aerospace, and other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (or STEM) oriented companies said the K-12 system isn’t doing a good job preparing a pipeline of future STEM professionals. And 55 percent of them gave schools a D or F for getting women and minorities interested in STEM careers.

So far, STEM education hasn’t seemed to be much of an issue in the presidential campaign. But maybe this survey will give Obama an opportunity to tout his STEM bill, which came out over the summer.