America is in trouble.

Emerging economic powers China and India are heavily investing in educating the world’s future workers while we squabble about punishing teachers and coddling children.

This week, the Center for American Progress and the Center for the Next Generation released a report entitled “The Race That Really Matters: Comparing U.S., Chinese and Indian Investments in the Next Generation Workforce.” The findings were breathtaking:

 Half of U.S. children get no early childhood education, and we have no national strategy to increase enrollment.

 More than a quarter of U.S. children have a chronic health condition, such as obesity or asthma, threatening their capacity to learn.

 More than 22 percent of U.S. children lived in poverty in 2010, up from about 17 percent in 2007.

 More than half of U.S. postsecondary students drop out without receiving a degree.