American education worldwide ranking has dropped from #1 to #10. Can we get back on track in an ailing economy?

(EMAILWIRE.COM, November 16, 2009 ) Fort Lauderdale, FL – As the 09/10 academic year commences, President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have been tirelessly devising ways to make American higher education remain very lucrative and competitive in the 21st century economy – perhaps due to the fact that in the past 10 years the US has dropped from the first position to the 10th among nations producing graduates. Among others, the Obama – Duncan duet have plans underway to lengthen the academic year, matching the time other nations spend educating their citizens. Degrees are needed to move ahead and finding funding is more important than ever.

While speaking at the Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, NY in mid September 2009, the President raised the following concerns briefly:
“We know that the nation that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow. The ability of new industries to thrive depends on workers with the knowledge and know-how to contribute in those fields. Yet, today, our primary and secondary schools continue to trail many of our competitors, especially in key areas like math and science. Hundreds of thousands of high school graduates who are prepared for college do not go to four-year or two-year schools because of the high cost of doing so. And roughly 40 percent of students who start college don’t complete college. All along that education pipeline, too many slip through the cracks. It’s not only heartbreaking for those students; it’s a loss for our economy and our country.”

Sheila Danzig, founder of Degree.com http://www.degree.com the Internet’s premier online education portal, said that looking on the brighter side, the House of Representatives recently passed the ‘direct student loan program’. According to reports on ‘Congress Matters’, Obama’s plans include:
* Investing $2.55 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions to provide students with the support they need to stay in school and graduate.”
* Investing $3 billion to bolster college access and completion support programs for students;
* Investing $40 billion to increase the maximum annual Pell Grant scholarship to $5,550 in 2010 and to $6,900 by 2019;
* Keeping interest rates low on need-based – or subsidized – federal student loans by making the interest rates on these loans variable beginning in 2012. These interest rates are currently set to jump from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent in 2012;
* Making it easier for families to apply for financial aid by simplifying the FAFSA form;
* Providing loan forgiveness for members of the military who are called up to duty in the middle of the academic year.
* Strengthening the Perkins Loan program, a campus-based program that provides low-cost federal loans to students.
Education watchers, among them, Bill Clinton and Randi Weingartner have praised the Obama plans and await their implementation.

Funding may not be the only issue observers state. The delivery system of the higher education itself seems wanting and may need overhauling owing to the large number of American students dissatisfied with the quality of education from the exorbitantly priced private institutions. Most of them would rather attend a cheaper state college with proven quality teaching techniques and avoid graduating with a huge debt when they receive their degree. Most of the students do not see the need of graduating from a prestigious private college having gained ‘nothing’ and exiting with a killer debt. Online degrees offer a less expensive option to education and has been growing rapidly. Online study can be an answer worth looking at.

The Washington Monthly has recently published a new college ranking – which has no resemblance to that of the traditional U.S. News and World Report. According to Washington Monthly’s ranking, the top three are all state universities and include: University of California at Berkeley, San Diego, and Los Angeles. Their metric system for determining rank position is based on: Pell Grants per student, number of students performing national service, and other less traditional measures.

In these times of recession, public (state) colleges may prove to be quite expensive for the average family. The New America Foundation has an asset-building program that has insight and invaluable analyses for families which are experiencing the full effects of the economic crunch.

An excellent starting ground for such families to start improving 529 college savings plan is to ensure that the states offer an array of traditional investment options. Examples of such inlcude: capital preservation investment options, such as a money market mutual fund, and age-based funds that start out more aggressive but automatically and seriously become more preservation focused as the child approaches college age.

Another step towards improving the college savings plan is ensuring full disclosure which is straightforward and easy to understand. This allows the families to have a very good idea on what they are investing in and the amount of risk involved in undertaking such an investment.

Obama finds Higher Education in America worth saving – it can be done!