Overpaying for Educational Underachievement

The consulting firm McKinsey today released its report on the economic implications of America’s two embarrassing educational achievement gaps: the gap between the United States and most other developed countries, and the gap between socioeconomic and racial groups within the United States. Education is a form of investment in a country’s labor force and its overall economy. This means that educational shortcomings drag on economic growth. McKinsey estimates that:
If the United States had in recent years closed the gap between its educational achievement levels and those of better-performing nations such as Finland and Korea, G.D.P. in 2008 could have been $1.3 trillion to $2.3 trillion higher. This represents 9 to 16 percent of G.D.P.
Similarly, if the United States had been able to narrow the achievement gap between white students and their black and Latino peers, the country’s G.D.P. would have been an estimated $310 billion to $525 billion higher, or 2 to 4 percent of G.D.P.
Unfortunately, throwing money at the system doesn’t seem to help, either. As it is, the United States gets comparatively little bang for its buck on education spending. The United States spends more than any other country per point on the PISA math exam, and 60 percent more than the O.E.C.D. average. Click on the title above to read more disheartening facts about the state of our education system.