Remember the days when our nation’s brightest students could attend flagship universities at nominal cost, because We the People picked up 90 percent of the tab on their behalf? Remember how our universities paid us back for that investment by producing the engineers who designed our interstate highway system, the scientists who won the space race to the moon, and the researchers who conquered smallpox and polio?

What happened to that national spirit of optimism and trust?

In my latest book—Let the Champions Run (and Watch Our Universities Soar), I describe the steps we can take to encourage our federal and state policymakers to revive our colleges and universities, the engines that drive our national brainpower. My primary argument is that when we shift from the current system of centrally planned monopolies (i. e., governor-appointed boards) to an environment that maximizes competition and free enterprise, our universities can blossom into a new golden age of higher education.