The rapid growth of China, India, Brazil and other emerging powers has dramatically altered the complexion of the global economy in recent years. At the same time, rising deficits, high trade imbalances, a declining dollar, and a lingering economic downturn have placed America's position within the global economy in peril-and have policymakers deliberating over the keys to America's economic future.
One area often cited as critical to the nation's future economic strength is higher education, particularly that America must dramatically increase the number of college-educated citizens to remain a leading economic power.
Bio
George Leef
George Leef is Director of Research at the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh, NC. He was previously on the faculty of Northwood University and a policy adviser in the Michigan Senate. Since 1996, he has served as book review editor of the Foundation for Economic Education's magazine, The Freeman.
Leef is the author of Free Choice for Workers: A History of the Right to Work Movement, and editor of Educating Teachers: The Best Minds Speak Out.
Michael Lomax
Michael Lomax is the President and CEO of the United Negro College Fund-the nation's largest and most effective minority education organization.
Immediately before joining UNCF, he served seven years as President of Dillard University in New Orleans. He taught literature at Morehouse and Spelman Colleges and the University of Georgia. He served as the first head of the Atlanta Bureau of Cultural Affairs and was elected to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, serving as its first African-American chair.
Paul Solman
Paul Solman has been a business, economics and occasional art correspondent for PBS NewsHour since 1985. He answers viewer questions on The Business Desk. He is also the presenter for and author of "Discovering Economics with Paul Solman," a series of videos distributed by McGraw-Hill.
Solman is part of a national consortium to teach "Financial Literacy" to Americans at every educational level. His work has won various awards, including several Emmys, two Peabodys, and a Loeb award.
Margaret Spellings
Margaret Spellings, U.S. Secretary of Education from 2005 to 2009, is the President and CEO of Margaret Spellings and Company and a leading national expert in public policy. Spellings also serves as Senior Advisor to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Executive Vice President of the National Chamber Foundation, and Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group.
Her prior positions include White House Domestic Policy Advisor (2001-05) and Senior Advisor to Governor George W. Bush (1995-2000).
Richard Vedder
Richard Vedder is the Director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity--an independent higher education think tank in Washington, DC. He is also Distinguished Professor of Economics at Ohio University and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
Vedder served on the Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education and has authored eight books, including Going Broke By Degree: Why College Costs Too Much. Vedder's upcoming book is tentatively titled Universities and Human Welfare.
Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. They also include teacher-training schools, community colleges, and institutes of technology. At the end of a prescribed course of study, a degree, diploma, or certificate is awarded. See alsocontinuing education.
Another point. There was argument on the pro side about staying competitive in the global education market. Fair enough in its own right. But the greatest education in the world given to anyone who can't produce something of value isn't going to make one iota of difference in "staying competitive" globally. In regards to this point, isn't alot of Americas current financial crisis more to do with the fact that it moved from being a nation that produces, to a nation that consumes? Electronics, vehicles, clothing, cutlery, cookwares, and on and on. All of these things produced outside of the country. All of these things that people "need" for survival that they do not produce for themselves. How is a nation of degrees and doctorates better off if they lack the ability to produce their own goods? How can you remain strong and independent when you rely on others? What is there to offer in return?
On a more personal ranty note. I'm sick of how the word "fair" is used. I'm tired of hearing people say "it isn't fair.". You're wrong. It is fair. A lion does not give some of it's gazelle to a weaker lion. Competition is fair. If you don't agree, or think it's a good thing, maybe go talk to Darwin.
This was a really great debate. But I think the two sides talked past each other a lot of the time because they never really got down to the meat and potatoes of what the purpose of college is.
The pro-investment side kept arguing that people who drop out of college or don't get in to begin with need money coupled with special attention to bring them up to the pace of college. I really take issue with that. I do not believe college is the place to teach people how to learn. By the time you reach college, you ought to already possess the tools to learn successfully.
If you do not have these skills, you should not be in college. If not enough people have those skills, then this is a failure of the primary and secondary education systems. No college administrator is complaining that there are so many really smart kids that they must turn them away. Nobody who has attended college in the last decade would argue that even the majority of college students are the best and brightest of society. So there is no shortage of opportunity for teenagers who can prove their intelligence via SATs, essays, recommendation letters, and interviews.
The focus should lie on teaching students in primary/secondary the skills required for them to prove themselves in that way. When the day comes that A-average high school students with strong SAT scores can't get into college, then we can talk about helping them financially. But spending enormous amounts of money to bring unqualified young people into he college system to learn basic skills they should already know is not the answer.
member. 
