Eric Hanushek and Terry Moe, Hoover senior fellows and members of the K–12 Education Task Force, discuss the role of economic growth in dealing with current deficit problems. The breakdown of congressional fiscal discussions over the balance of spending cuts and taxes completely neglects the third option of increasing GDP growth, a policy that would deal with long-run Medicare and Social Security issues. Improving long-run growth, however, will take significant changes in school policy–something that is difficult to achieve politically. (6:06)

Hoover senior fellows and members of the Koret Task Force on K–12 Education Eric Hanushek and Paul Peterson describe how the United States compares to developed countries of the world in math achievement. On average US students place 32nd in the world in math, following Portugal. The best state, Massachusetts, is only 9th in the world; the most populous state (California) comes in 37th. (5:59)

Hoover senior fellows and members of the Koret Task Force on K–12 Education Eric Hanushek and Paul Peterson dissect the fiscal problems in US education. Short-run revenue problems are hard to solve just by wishful thinking, but the long-run problems caused by health care demands and unfunded retirement liabilities are real. (4:37)

Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of the Koret Task Force on K–12 Education; Ludger Woessman is from the University of Munich. Hanushek and Woessman discuss a recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that links modest and achievable gains in student learning with large increases in gross domestic product (GDP) over the long run. Video transcript (5:38)