Miles to go before we sleep...

President Obama has framed a very specific goal for the United States: To increase the proportion of 25-to-34-year-olds who hold an associate degree or higher to 55 percent by the year 2025 in order to make America the leader in educational attainment in the world.

It's also very ambitious: Just see for yourself. This is data from the US Education Dashboard showing where we are as of a few years ago. It uses PUMS Data of the American Community Survey, and averages the results over three years to reduce the standard error of measure.

You can see how far we've come in three years by using the filter at the top right to toggle between 2005-2007 and 2007-2009. These were, I'd remind you, very good years for higher education in the US.

More important, you can see how far we have to go; the reference line is set to 55%. And as a bonus, of course, you can compare states and different ethnic groups. US Totals are indicated by the blue bar; states are in grey.

Where would you put the odds of accomplishing this task?

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