U.S. falling behind in education

Sad, but true.  Among 55-64 year olds, only Russia, Canada and Israel match the US in terms of the percentage of the population with a college degree.  But a recent WSJ piece notes that the US is just average in college completion compared to most other developed countries today and way behind S. Korea and Japan. 

Here is a different way to slice the data that gives a different perspective on the same problem.  As long as we have been recording data on educational attainment in the US, each generation has completed more schooling than its parents.  Until now. 

This is a concern in a world where human capital plays a much bigger role in prosperity than physical capital or natural resources.