There are situations in public policy where there are figurative $100 bills lying around waiting to be picked up. Public investment in college students is one such case. To the government, each potential college graduate is a figurative $560,000 bill lying on the ground. True, it costs $74,500 to pick it up, but that is obviously a great deal. Indeed, this deal is made more than 2 million times a year nationally, as new college graduates start creating all sorts of positive fiscal effects in federal, state and local budgets. There are many more figurative $560,000 bills still waiting to be picked up. But instead of making more of these $74,500 investments, public investment in college education is a falling priority.