Huge economic gains if we improved our educational outcomes

An important new study estimates the huge economic gains if we improved our educational outcomes:

When it comes to math and science scores, the United States lags most of the other 33 advanced industrialized countries that make up theOrganization for Economic Cooperation and Development, ranking 24th, far behind Korea, Poland and Slovenia.

Moving up just a few notches to 19th — so that the average American score matched the O.E.C.D. average — would add 1.7 percent to the nation's gross domestic product over the next 35 years, according to estimates by the Washington Center, a nonpartisan, liberal-leaning research group focused on narrowing inequality. That could lead to roughly $900 billion in higher government revenue, more than making up for the cost of such an effort.

If Americans were able to match the scores reached in Canada, which ranks seventh on the O.E.C.D. scale, the United States' gross domestic product would rise by an additional 6.7 percent, a cumulative increase of $10 trillion (after taking inflation into account) by the year 2050, the report estimated.