Who would you bet is more likely to graduate from college? The yet-to-be born children of Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky or Tripp Palin, the child already born to Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin, who became pregnant at 17? Therein lies the secret of America's declining educational performance.

The United States, which once led the world, has fallen to twelfth in the percentage of its citizens that graduate from college, according to a column by Bob Herbert in last Friday's New York Times.

The time has come to admit the truth every parent knows -- childrearing today is harder and more expensive than it was in the era in which America rose to prominence. Higher education became less affordable even before the Great Recession forced the states to slash education budgets, and the loss of close knit communities means that parental supervision has become more important in keeping children out of trouble. In our book Red Families v. Blue Families, we explain that "blue families" have responded to this reality by investing more in each child, and encouraging them to wait to have children until they, too, can bring the emotional and financial resources of independent adults to the task. Chelsea and Marc represent the new ideal, and there is every reason to believe that they will have considerable resources to bring to childrearing. Bristol and Levi, in contrast, represent the outcome of a system that preaches abstinence without the foundation of adult supervision, a promising future, or draconian consequences that once made it work. They bring Tripp into a world that simultaneously says having the child and keeping it is an acceptable choice, but you are on your own in dealing with an environment that provides little support for childrearing.

In another era, marriage would have been the answer. Levi would need to get a job, but jobs were plentiful. Today, the lack a high school diploma keeps him out of the electrician's apprentice program in which he tried to enroll, and the alternatives (outside of cashing in the notoriety that comes from his connection to the Palin family) are bleak. In the meantime, he is likely to father (if he hasn't done so already) other children to whom he contributes little support.

In another era, Bristol may have found married life confining, but the stakes for her have become much higher. Teens who marry young face bleaker financial circumstances, and they have always faced high risks of divorce. Over the last twenty years, the overall divorce rate has leveled off, but the chances that young couples like Bristol and Levi will remain married have worsened appreciably and more women, like Bristol, decide that the prospective groom simply doesn't offer enough to make marriage worthwhile.

For Bristol, marriage itself has risks that extend far beyond the discovery that Levi is a cad. If marriage were to make it more likely that she has a second child soon after the first or that she relies on her husband's earnings rather than her own, both her marital happiness and her prospects for life without Levi decline. Two career couples and stay-at-home moms with successful husbands are both doing well; financially stretched couples where the mother has to work because of the father's failure to earn enough to support the family are not -- and working class men now earn less in real dollar terms that they did a generation ago. Many parents, apparently like the Palins, experience relief when their daughters fail to marry the fathers of their children.

All of this magnifies the uncertainties for Tripp's future. The stimulation a child receives during the first three years, and parental ability to provide that interaction, increases with the parents' education and the support the caretaking parent has from others. Single mothers are stretched thin. As the child grows, the child needs medical care, parents who can supervise homework and afterschool activities, love and supervision. College graduates are more likely to be employed in workplaces that offer health insurance, flexible hours, and parental leave, and they are more likely to live in neighborhoods that still have effective public school.

As high school students start to plan for college, those who are most optimistic about their futures are also more likely to remain abstinent (and to use contraception if they don't). And with more students unable to afford the traditional college experience, the odds of keeping less hopeful students on track become more difficult.

While we emphasize that blue states do better than red states in delaying marriage and investing in children, the differences are ones of degree. Sarah Palin is a hero to her constituency because she and Bristol both had inconvenient children rather than resort to abortion. Her supporters realize that the conservative elite more commonly follows the blue prescription -- invest heavily in the children you have and protect them from the youthful temptations that threaten the futures of the next generation. The Tea Partiers just do not believe that their tax dollars should be used to help the children of others; indeed, the Republicans in Congress are blocking efforts to provide emergency funding to prevent teacher lay-offs. The modern economy and the triumph of conservative economics magnify inequality and make the stakes of childbearing that much higher. Hillary -- not Sarah -- is the Mama Grizzly in this story.

The best and worst part of Chelsea Clinton's wedding to Marc Mezvinsky last weekend were one and the same.

The family managed to keep it a private affair with almost no high-powered celebrities or politicians, which cannot have been easy when the bride's dad is a former president and her mom the current secretary of state.

Of course, it helped to have the Secret Service on duty. But despite all the wild predictions about glitzy guests, there wasn't an Oprah Winfrey or a George Clooney in sight. The vast majority of the 400 invitees were friends and relations of the bride and groom.

I read somewhere that guests were prohibited from bringing cameras and cell phones to prevent unauthorized images and postings.

Good for them. The Clintons kept a joyous family occasion from becoming a media circus. Which didn't stop the media from trying to make it one, camped out around Rhinebeck, N.Y., and delivering nonstop speculation with almost no actual facts. Depending on the outlet, the wedding was said to have cost $1 million, $3 million, $6 million ... the longer reporters went without news, the higher the imaginary price tag climbed.

Yet this very sense of privacy and proportion (relatively speaking) that I admire was keeping me from indulging one of my guilty pleasures: I wanted more pictures, of everything, and I actually felt as if I deserved them. Not proud of it, but there it is.

Having watched Chelsea grow up from an awkward tween to a lovely, graceful and assured woman, I felt a sense of ownership that is wholly inappropriate. And in a country where political families are as close as we come to royalty, I'm not the only one.

I don't know these people, but I feel as if I do. I have witnessed many of their highest and lowest moments over the years -- Mr. Clinton's election and impeachment, Mrs. Clinton's presidential run and "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling" concession speech, and that iconic image of Chelsea literally holding her parents together as they traversed the White House lawn during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Well, they are still together. For all the broken promises and self-inflicted wounds, the vicious attacks by political foes and merciless coverage, Mr. and Mrs. Clinton's marriage has endured. Maybe frequent trips to different time zones help, but there's no denying their longevity has defied the odds.

So it made me happy to see them all so happy, celebrating a wonderful moment for the daughter who is arguably their greatest accomplishment. Even their harshest critics had to concede that the Clintons did a great job with Chelsea, and now they had the pure joy of seeing her marry the childhood friend she grew to love, in a ceremony acknowledging both their religious traditions, hers Methodist, his Jewish.

Having suffered through the bad times, I wanted more and better pictures of the good ones. I wanted to see both of the Vera Wang gowns, the one Chelsea wore for the ceremony and the slinky one she changed into for the reception. And the Oscar de la Renta dress worn by the mother-of-the bride. And the bridesmaids and ushers in their finery.

I wanted a close-up of the ketuba (the marriage contract written in Hebrew, which is the large artwork on the easel in the official wedding shots) and a longer shot of the chuppah, or marriage canopy, in this case a woven bower of branches and flowers. I wanted to see the groom stomping on a wine glass, and the principals lifted on chairs and danced around the room at the reception. I wanted to see the table settings, the flowers and the gluten-free cake -- in short, the whole enchilada.

I don't normally feel this way about famous people's weddings and wasn't much interested when the children of Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Al Gore or George W. Bush got married. But then, I didn't watch any of them grow up in the midst of Shakespearean plot lines. Yet I felt a similar need for pictures in 1996, when John F. Kennedy Jr. married Carolyn Bessette in a much smaller and far more secretive affair. It was a function of having witnessed his family tragedies over the years, and his journey from the little boy saluting his fallen father's coffin to the grown man holding the hand of his bride.

Speaking of grooms, one might have thought Marc Mezvinsky was an orphan and only child for all the mention of his family in most reports when, in fact, he has two living parents and 10 siblings, several of them adopted. Not a single picture of them was among the official portfolio released to the press -- not even the brothers in the wedding party.

I'm guessing that's how the Mezvinskys wanted it. Marc's parents, Ed Mezvinsky and Marjorie Margolis-Mezvinsky, are both former members of Congress. His father served five years in prison for financial fraud, and his parents divorced shortly after the crimes came to light. Apparently, Mr. Mezvinsky was something of a mini-Bernie Madoff, bilking family and friends of millions of dollars, and is persona non grata among most of the relatives. But he was still invited to the wedding, where he reportedly stayed in the shadows while the groom's mother accompanied him down the aisle. That's another picture I wanted to see, mother and son together.

Maybe more photos will be coming out -- as I write this, People magazine is touting some exclusive shots that I haven't had a chance to check. Not that I'm rushing the newlyweds, and not that it will be any of my business, but I'm looking forward to their first-born.

Exclusively caught up with Bill Clinton backstage at the First Annual World Leadership Awards -- hosted by our own Kevin Frazier -- in Atlanta on Friday night, and in a rare public comment on the subject of his daughter Chelsea's wedding, the former president told ET the nuptials were "wonderful."

Clinton was honored with the Service Legacy Award at the awards ceremony, which was thrown by music star Usher's New Look Foundation, a non-profit organization that strives to motivate and mobilize youth around the country to become corporate and community leaders.

Also on Friday, Clinton broke ground on a new, communal hurricane shelter in Haiti following his Clinton Foundation's $1 million pledge to improve hurricane safety. The nation's 42nd president also announced that, inspired by the Clinton Foundation's commitment, the American Red Cross is investing $1 million to develop additional emergency shelters, and will invest $4 million more as other shelter sites are identified.

One week ago, Clinton walked his daughter Chelsea down the aisle when she married longtime beau Marc Mezvinsky at the lavish Astor Courts estate in Rhinebeck, New York.

Chelsea Clinton’s Vera Wang wedding dress cost an estimated $20,000. If you love this style and are hoping to re-create Chelsea’s look, here are some similar dress ideas for less:

Chelsea’s gown is a modified version of the “Diana” dress from Vera Wang’s Spring 2010 line. Clinton changed the neckline and added a crystal belt to accentuate her tiny waist. Sites like Preownedweddingdresses.com have the “Diana” dress for half the retail price. Check Etsy for a belt like Chelsea’s at a fraction of the price.

Monique Lhullier’s strapless organza “Sunday Rose” also has the look of Chelsea’s gown with a pleated bodice and rose embroidered A-line skirt. This dress retails for $9,500 but can be found on sites like Once Wed for a discounted price.

The Signature Galina gown at David’s Bridal has cascading organza tiers and asymmetrical ruffles just like Chelsea’s dress. Retail price $1,150.

Someone even likened the New York nuptials to America's "royal wedding," which would have been the antithesis of the young woman's raising. Whatever they did wrong, the Clintons did something right in rearing Chelsea.

We haven't heard much about her since she was a shy schoolgirl living in the White House. She hasn't been arrested for drunk driving, or romanced a movie star, or been a tabloid cover girl. She finished school, started to work and now has married a young man she's known for years.

Chelsea Clinton's  Private Life

The point is this: When running against the Clintons, Republicans always bragged about their stand for "family values." It was always a vague, nebulous -- some would say hypocritical -- term, but we voters knew what was meant. It harkened to Bill Clinton's womanizing and Hillary's feminism. We somehow were supposed to think Republicans had cornered the market on morality.

Guess again. The unlikely Larry Flynt made that point clear during the white hot heat of the Monica Lewinsky affair. For every Democratic skirt-chaser, he found three Republicans with loose zippers. Seems that no one political party had cornered the market on straying spouses.

As a hellbent political and professional couple, the Clintons have stumbled more than once. But from all evidence, they were on the same page about Chelsea. They fought for her privacy like tigers on the road to the White House, during a presidency kept on tender-hooks by political enemies, throughout a terribly public airing of dirty marital laundry. When an adult Chelsea campaigned for her mother during the failed Hillary presidential campaign, we were almost surprised.

Family values are different for each and every family. That's why they are called "family" values. They aren't decided by a single religion, a majority vote or one political party out to exploit mistakes of the other.

In choosing public lives for themselves, Bill and Hillary invited into their lives intense scrutiny, zealous critics and both sides of the coin stamped by fame. Some would say they thrive on it.

They had the decency, however, to protect Chelsea till she could choose a course for herself. How easy it might be for a Clinton daughter to run for office, write a best-selling book, travel the world meeting princes and trailing paparazzi. So far, at least, she's chosen a much more sensible route. As first daughter, even with protective parents, perhaps she had enough publicity to last a lifetime.

I think the abiding image this nation might have of Chelsea Clinton will have nothing to do with a fairy-tale wedding or with the peripheral hubbub like pepperoni pizzas with meat that spelled out "I Do." I think, instead, it will be the photograph of a much younger Chelsea, walking between her parents, holding both their hands, on their way to try to patch up an ailing family. Something about the young woman's body language exuded love and determination and, yes, hope.

Every marriage has problems, every family its struggles. Chelsea and her new husband no doubt will have their share of trials, self-induced and otherwise.

Something tells me that life has given Chelsea a leg up in the coping department, however. I think the family values she grew up with -- yes, while living with Bill and Hillary -- will serve her well.

Read more: The Williamson Daily News - The private life of Chelsea Clinton