The Atlantic – Gillian B. White
“The benefits of a better education are most often discussed in terms of personal gain: higher wages, greater economic mobility, and generally, a better life. But not all the benefits are private: Local economies flourish when there are more skilled and productive workers. That’s the conclusion of the economists Eric A. Hanushek of Stanford, and Ludger Woessmann and Jens Ruhose of the University of Munich, whose new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research takes a look at the financial return for states who invest in improving the quality of K-12 education. They find that the payoff can be significant…if all students in the U.S. could be brought up to basic mastery as defined by NAEP, the U.S. GDP would increase by $32 trillion, or 14.6 percent.”(more)