More than 90 current and former top state higher-education officials have joined in urging Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain to pledge to support basic scientific research and work to bring about roughly a 50-percent increase in the number of Americans earning college degrees.

In a letter and report mailed to the three leading presidential candidates this week, the past and present state officials say the United States no longer leads the world in the education of young adults and runs the risk of being overtaken by other nations in terms of scientific discovery and technical innovation.

The next president will need “to give urgent attention to higher education” if the U.S. is to continue to have the rising family incomes and a strong job market that are “a top priority for the American people and a prerequisite for continued national security,” the letter says.

Both the letter and report are the work of the State Higher Education Executive Officers, a national association based in Boulder, Colo. Most—but not all—of the group’s current members signed on to the documents.

The report says the proportion of young U.S. adults with an associate or bachelor’s degree must rise from 40 percent to at least 55 percent if the nation is to keep up with Canada and Japan. To reach that level, the number of U.S. residents earning such degrees each year must rise from 2 million to 3 million, which will require simplifying and expanding federal financial aid programs and otherwise overhauling federal higher-education programs and policies.

The report asks the three candidates to “clearly and explicitly commit your campaign and your administration to reestablishing and sustaining a higher education system that is second to no other nation in its quality and productivity.”