The author reports on president Obama's plan for Americans to have some higher education which could mean more earning power for many people. In a speech before Congress in February, the president called the nation's steep high-school dropout rates and low college-completion rates a "prescription for economic decline," and he urged all Americans to commit to a year of college, technical training, or apprenticeship. If the country complies, the economic returns could be extraordinary. Nationwide some 101.5 million adults over the age of 18--a full 45 percent of Americans--have never attended college, according to the Census Bureau. If each of them took a year's worth of college courses, their earnings would grow by $70-billion, according to estimates by the Center on Education and the Workforce, at Georgetown University. Although the economic downturn has affected Americans at all education levels, it has hit the least educated hardest. But getting to the president's goal will not be easy, and skeptics say it is not even necessary. While a college degree may lead to higher earnings, it still is not a requirement for most jobs. Critics of the president's plan say it would be a waste of time and money for all Americans to get a full year of postsecondary education.