America's Economic Dominance In The World Is Slipping

Just take a look at how many people we're graduating from college. A new study by the Center for American Progress reveals that the number of Americans graduating from college in America is declining – while China and India are producing more and more college graduates. Between 2000 and 20-10, our nation's share of college graduates in the world dropped from 24% to 21%, while China's share increased from 9% to 11%. And by 20-20, if the trend continues, then there will be little daylight between the United States and China when it comes to each of their shares of college graduates in the world. One explanation is that the price of college has increased dramatically in America. Plus, there's the proliferation of for-profit colleges that care more about taking government money that graduating students. And of course, there's the unsettling student loan debt problem – which is a trillion dollar weight on young people trying to go to college. All of these factors are crippling our nation's most important infrastructure – our intellectual infrastructure. Time to start investing in education by sending Americans to college for free to ensure the United States is still competitive in the global economy in the next century.