Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- As the U.S. population ages, and
with the effects of the financial crisis promising to linger for
some time, economic growth will be lower than we would like.
This is why the federal government needs to do more to help
Americans earn college degrees.
For much of the 20th century, the U.S. benefited from
rapidly rising educational levels, as the economists Claudia
Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz of Harvard University showed in
their 2008 book, “The Race Between Education and Technology.”
Over the past 30 years, however, educational attainment has
risen much more slowly. From 1960 to 1985, the share of adult
Americans with at least a college degree more than doubled, to
19 percent from less than 8 percent. From 1985 to 2010, though,
the share rose by only about half, to 30 percent. This slowdown
has exacerbated inequality and crimped growth.
