From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Will the U.S. invest in its own future?

Hello again, I'm Mormon Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

President Obama says the

U.S. has to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world, and industry

leaders agree. But while state after state challenges educators to produce a competitive

workforce, they simultaneously cut spending from K-12 to grad school. Meantime, the U.K.'s Royal Society

says China is producing enough research and trained professionals

to overtake the U.S. in science in two years.

So why do Chinese parents do whatever they can to get kids into American schools?

Does the U.S. need education reform?

Or more of the same?

On reporters' notebook later on high stakes in tomorrow's state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio

International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine

T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, dedicated to the idea

that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. Information at

Gates Foundation.org. Hello again, Warren Olney, back with To The Point. In the rush to cut

government spending, states are reducing resources for public schools,

including higher education. With China, already passed Great Britain in producing research,

...