American history has proven that personal and public investment in college and knowledge yields huge dividends. Yet according to Vartan Gregorian, President of Carnegie Corporation of New York, we shortchange our nation's progress and squander our greatest renewable resource—our intellectual capital—if we allow critique of academia or passing partisan squabbling to stifle investment in higher education.
In a recent opinion article published by US News & World Reportwritten on the occasion of President Abraham Lincoln's signing into law of the Morrill Act of 1862, which established the land-grant colleges that now form the backbone of our public university system, Gregorian challenges Americans to ask if we, as a nation, can do what Lincoln did: See past our differences to invest in our future? Do we have Lincoln's faith, foresight, and the fiscal fortitude essential to educating the citizens and leaders we will need to keep our nation competitive in the globalized and knowledge-based economy of the 21st century? We have come to a crossroads and must decide which way we want to go.
Read “Investing in Education Is Key to America's Future Success.”