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WASHINGTON--That heady question was the subject of a conference organized by Education Sector, a Washington think tank, earlier this week. Policy experts and industry stakeholders gathered to discuss education reform proposals and the issues facing the American higher education system. Their prognosis? We have a lot of work to do.

Concerns over rising tuition costs, limited access to education for lower-income students and highly uncertain job prospects were major themes of the event. The discussion concluded that serious education reforms are needed--and in short order.

Degrees: More critical than ever

The conference began with discussion around how attainment of a postsecondary degree or certificate is more critical than ever for job seekers. Furthermore, this urgency will build as well-paying jobs that require only modest education will continue to disappear amid a steadily professionalizing workforce. A leading exponent of that view is the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, which projects that the demand for workers who have completed a postsecondary program will outstrip supply by 20 million by 2025.

The Obama administration has weighed in with its own proposal to avert this shortfall, announcing the ambitious goal of becoming the country with the highest percentage of college graduates in the world. To achieve that mark, the United States will have to play catch-up.

How the U.S. education system compares

An analysis out this week from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranking industrialized countries by education level put the United States 16th place in one critical category. That ranking, based on the proportion of residents between the ages of 25 and 34 who have completed some level of postsecondary education, calculated the U.S. at 41 percent. That puts the country just slightly behind nearly a dozen nations in the 40-plus percent range, but the gap widens at the top of the list, headed by South Korea (63 percent), Canada (56 percent), Japan (56 percent) and Russia (55 percent).

"It's not that the United States is doing a lot worse, it's quite simply that the rest of the world is doing a lot better," said Jamie Merisotis, president of the Lumina Foundation, an education-focused organization that has its own goal of a 60 percent rate of college-degree attainment by 2025. "People who believe that we don't have anything to learn from other countries are sorely mistaken."

But is college really even worth it?

A recent strain of thought has called into question the value of higher education altogether. Some argue that, in light of dismal job prospects after graduation and the investment of time and money required to complete a four-year degree, it simply isn't worth it.

Nevertheless, this line of thinking remains a fringe view among policy makers, who point to the Georgetown data and numerous other research reports that argue that no matter how tough the job market may be for new grads, it is far worse for those who have only earned a high school degree.

"We know that this is now the key to the American dream," said Zakiya Smith, the senior advisor for education on the White House Domestic Policy Council. Smith is quick to point out, however, that the policy team is keenly aware that a four-year degree program is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. "There are many two-year degrees and certificates that can give you the skills you need to have a good job," she explained.

But for families of modest means with kids planning for a four-year program, the cost of college can be prohibitive - and it only continues to grow. In the last academic year, average tuition at public colleges and universities jumped nearly 8 percent.

Kevin Carey, Education Sector's policy director, called the college market "archaic," describing it as an unlevel playing field that disproportionately favors well-off families. "It was built to work for people of means, for people of privilege," Carey noted. "It was not built for and does not work very well for all the rest of the people who very much need to go to college to secure their financial future."

Driving toward better outcomes

According to Craig Powell, the founder and CEO of ConnectEDU, too many schools offer incomplete or even misleading pictures of how their students fare in the workplace. Often, schools tout job statistics only for graduates and exclude the large numbers of students who start, but don't finish a degree program.

"The number one reason that students don't finish college is financial," Powell said, arguing for static tuition rates throughout a student's course of study, rather than the current situation where rates typically rise each year.

Better data from the U.S. Labor Department could help, too. The White House's Smith noted the administration's ongoing open data initiative aims to make more government reports accessible online. In theory, that would mean that people researching their postsecondary options could have a more complete picture of how different schools and majors translate into the workforce.

The Obama administration has taken steps to address access for low-income students, and to put regulatory checks on career-oriented programs whose graduates can't find work. The administration has bolstered the federal Pell Grant program, for instance, and has so far preserved funding amid calls from some to slash the program. And earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Education finalized the so-called "gainful employment" rules that would make career-oriented programs ineligible for federal loans if an insufficient number of their grads land jobs in their fields of study.

Still, Smith signaled that the steps the administration would pursue will likely be fairly modest and incremental, particularly amid the heightened political tensions between the White House and a Republican-controlled House.

"I think it's better for the federal government to take the lead of what innovators are doing in the field," she said.