Endangering Prosperity: A Global View of the American School

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PRAISE FOR ENDANGERING PROSPERITY “America faces many pressures ranging from achieving long-run fiscal balance to maintaining our strong national security. As Hanushek, Peterson, and Woessmann persuasively show, these pressures could be dramatically lessened by improving our schools.” George P. Shultz, former U.S. Secretary of State “Just when you thought we’d reached a consensus on the need to dramatically improve America’s schools, a chorus is emerging to suggest all is well. Endangering Prosperity contains all the facts and figures needed to put an end to such dangerous and misguided thinking.” Joel Klein, former Chancellor of New York City schools “If the United States is to continue to be the experiment in liberty and freedom for which those who founded our great country sacrificed their lives, we must find a way to fix our schools. If we continue on the path we are on, we endanger more than just our prosperity, as the authors of this powerful volume make clear.” Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida “Endangering Prosperity makes a compelling case that K–12 public education in the United States is lagging compared to its international counterparts—and that the issue extends across the socioeconomic spectrum. The economic costs are simply too great, the authors persuasively argue, to accept the timid incrementalism that too often passes for‘reform.’” Chris Cerf, Commissioner of Education, State of New Jersey “Seen from abroad, it is clear that America’s schools could do better. Endangering Prosperity accurately describes the challenges facing U.S. schools, but also shows the rewards that could come from improvement.” Sir Michael Barber, former adviser to U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow in Education at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Paul E. Peterson is the Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government and director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Ludger Woessmann is a professor of economics at the University of Munich. BROOKINGS INSTITUTION PRESS Washington, D.C. www.brookings.edu/press Cover design by Rebecca S. Neimark, Twenty-Six Letters Cover image courtesy of istockphoto.com ...