Right Destination, Wrong Vehicle
The Schott Foundation for Public Education responds to Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address
Make no mistake, President Barack Obama understands the critically important link between quality education and a strong future for our country. The President’s State of the Union address placed education as a cornerstone of sustaining and growing our country’s democracy and economy. The President used the address as an opportunity to claim this as America’s “Sputnik moment” and reiterate his “man on the moon” goal that America will have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.
A 2010 Lumina Foundation report indicates that to achieve this goal by 2025, 60 percent of the U.S. population between the ages of 25-64 would need a post-secondary education-far more than the 37 percent in the United States that have achieved that goal. Lumina also predicts that to achieve this five years later than the President’