With election day just a week away, we're all evaluating our choices so we'll be prepared to cast our ballots on November 6. In the spirit of educated decision making, Information Builders' Jake Freivald, Vice President of Corporate Marketing provides a guest post and infographic for my blog -- this time focusing on education. (If you didn't see his Decision 2012 healthcare blog, click here.

Here's Jake's guest post:

Everyone believes that higher education should be a priority for America, but they differ on the ways in which it should be addressed. President Obama has pushed plans for student loan forgiveness and consolidation, hoping that by providing the funding that families need, more people will be able to afford the education needed to stay competitive. Governor Romney says that "a flood of federal dollars is driving up tuition and burdening too many young Americans with substantial debt and too few opportunities." (See: http://www.mittromney.com/issues/education.)
 
Regardless of our individual opinions on the situation, it's clear that the federal government is investing large amounts of money in loans and grants that will help students get a college education. Since that's unlikely to change immediately, we can focus narrowly on the question: What is that investment getting us?
 
The infographic below highlights some of the questions and a few answers that we should be asking to determine where this money should go, regardless of who the President is in the next four years.
 
It also shows why business intelligence -- and predictive analytics in particular, probably using big data stores that collect information on millions of student loan recipients -- will be important for institutions and the government in the next five years.
 
Feel free to share this infographic with your friends and colleagues. And I'll be back a little later in the week with one more post, this time on financial regulations. Stay tuned!