Unfortunately, I believe Kathy was correct in her assessment a few days ago that innovation is moving out of the United States,. The first I recall hearing warnings about the coming Great American Brain Drain was in an article by David Gergen, published two years ago in U.S. News and World Report. In this article -- entitled Great to Good? -- Gergen reports that "In 1970, U.S. students represented 30 percent of all university enrollments worldwide; by 2000, that had dropped to just 14 percent. The U.S. share of Ph.D.'s around the world is also plummeting, from about 50 percent in the early 1970s to a projected level of 15 percent in 2010. By a separate estimate, within just five years, Asia will have produced 90 percent of the world's scientists. Never before has there been such an explosion in the world's knowledge workers." The bad news is that the vast majority of this explosion in the world's knowledge workers is occurring outside of our borders.

America is falling behind the rest of the world when it comes to academic achievement and the production of Ph.D.s and scientists. And given all the other priorities on the current administration's plate -- wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an economy that is still reeling, multi-trillion-dollar bailouts of most every industry with a lobbyist in D.C., and the rollout of a healthcare plan that is of yet undermined cost -- it's unlikely that much will be done to stem the tide.

Innovation is one of our nation's most important engines of growth and prosperity over the long run. As innovation falters, so will we.