Well i didnt mean to give off the impression we should impose a soviet model on our education system, but give incentives for students to go into Science and Engineering and perhaps revamp the way colleges learn. I myself am in Sciences and alot of the times the things you learn in college are redundant. The problem is though that most classes will rereview old material for 1/3rd - 1/2 the class and then spend the second half on new material. It sounds slightly exxagerated but it happens quite frequently. You tend to cover the basic maths and sciences over and then go over those in the advanced classes since most kids will forget or not bother commiting the material to long term memory.
We could probably shed a year off traditional degrees if you really revamped the system, or use that 4th year to give our science and engineering grads the same knowledge as would be given to a masters in that degree. It would help make them a lot more competetive.
I didn't mean to imply that. At the time of the Revolution, students knew more at 12 than today's students do at 18. Today's public "education" "system" makes sure that most people hardly learn anything. We need something completely different.