The problem with graduation rates is that we then optimize to increase that KPI as much as possible, at the expense of median education quality (which is nomina

The problem with graduation rates is that we then optimize to increase that KPI as much as possible, at the expense of median education quality (which is nominally the social good we're trying to support). You do get more people with "the credential" - which you could also get by handing them out for a buck fifty at Walgreens, if that's what you really wanted to maximize. It's almost impossible to give politicians a hot-button campaign topic without them over-reducing the problem to a counter-productive KPI, which they will then tie funding to.