So we (as in "various elements of US society") are paying to educate people, and then are sending them back where their home countries benefit, while the US does not. It's so dumb.

There are some cool exceptions, like some programs where students educated in the US are required to go back to their home countries. The idea is to help raise the level of education in countries where the higher education system isn't well developed or funded, and I think that sort of thing is an admirable goal. But it's so bizarre that we, for example, complain about supposed Chinese academic espionage, and complain about brain drain, but simultaneously make it really hard for international students to stay in the US after they graduate.